Went up to Sugar Mountain this weekend for the National Mountain bike Series race. My how the times have changed. Doesn't seem like there were more than 200 people there all weekend. Most classes had 6-8 racers in them. 6-7 years ago there would have been 80-100 per class. Guess everyone took drugs and went to race on the road.
Anyways, saw some XC racing on Fri.- Teammates did well in the JrX race. The Semi-Pro race was pathetic- wish I had raced it now. Got some super D practice runs in- pretty gnarly Downhill, technical and fun- not real fast in most places.
Saturday was rainy and overcast all day- decided not to practice, figured the course would be all chewed up and different on Sun anyways. Watched the Pro Men and Women's XC races- very wet and muddy, saw some hurtin' people out there.
Sunday was my big day. Short Track race @ 2:30 followed immediately by 2 DH runs and the super D race. I was pretty nervous- They made me race Pro Super D because of my XC license. I would have been happy to Sandbag the 30+ class like Robert Marion did.
Anyways- got a good warmup then raced the Short track.
The race started fast with many attacks. Everyone was racing at inhumane speeds up the mountain, I could hardly believe it possible! Then the officials neutralized the race. They gave us all drug tests. The race leader was ejected, then a few others, then a couple of teams withdrew. One guy that was impossibly out of contention took testosterone and was kicked out. Everyone screamed and cried that they were innocent. Once that was taken care of, the 13 of us left raced on. The day afterwards even someone else turned in a positive test as well.
Wait----- My mistake, that was some other race. My race was not nearly as exciting.
On to the Super D. I was cooked after the Short Track and wondering if I could hold it togather for the SD. I ended up being first off in the Pro class. Pedaled really hard and rode real fast, then lost my chain and spent a very long time unjamming it from between the bottom bracket and the small chainring. Then I had to run up a hill after freeing the chain, causing a huge slowdown and losing precious seconds. Rode as hard as I could the rest of the way to post a new fastest time ( the good thing about being the 1st one down !). My time stood for a couple of riders then the heavies started knocking time off. I ended up 14th. 20 seconds off the podium. I would have been real close without the chain problem.
Came home exhausted and went right to bed. Raced a total of 25 mins. this weekend and feel like I've been in 25 car wrecks. Later- DH
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