Finally a Race Report!
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It’s been too long since my last post. It’s scary how fast time is going by these days. Between riding, reffing and working - not too mention a social life, the days are flying by. I can’t believe it’s already May.
I raced the Tiger Rag in Clemson, South Carolina a few weeks ago. It was my first official race on the 29er crew and it went pretty well. I raced the sport class and was looking for a good result. I should have known on the start that it was going to be an interesting day as I missed clipping into my pedal not once, but TWICE! I don’t know how long it’s been since I missed a pedal. I kind of laughed it off and caught up to the lead group heading into the woods. I think I was somewhere around 7th place into the woods. I relaxed and tried to pay attention to the course because I didn’t get to pre-ride the course (note to self…).
The Tiger Rag course is awesome. Some of the trail was newly cut and hadn’t been ‘burned’ in so it was kind of like being on a roller coaster. I think this is a were riding a 29er really pays off as the larger wheels roll so much better than a 26er. The rest of the course was fast single track with a decent climb and a super fun, twisty downhill. About a third of the way through the first lap, we made an uphill left hand turn when an interesting thing happened. The rider in front of me tapped the rider’s rear wheel in front of him and I swear his rear wheel fell off! It was crazy, never seen that happen. He started screaming at the guy that it was the 2nd time he had bumped him. I thought this was strange because I would have been a lot more concerned as to why my wheel fell off my bike.
Anyways, back to the race. I managed to move up to third place behind Ryan (a local from Charlotte) and another guy. I settled in but really wanted to push it more. This probably turned out to be a tactical mistake. I told Ryan I needed to get by and he let me by on an uphill and I just keep the pressure on. I felt great and started to drop the two guys behind me. I managed to catch up to a couple guys in the class in front of us by the end of the first lap. I always get a chuckle when you pass a guy and he asks what class are you in? I told him not to worry as I was in the ‘older sport’ class that started behind him.
I started the second lap really concentrating on getting into a good rhythm and not burning too much energy. I flew down the trail and started one of the short uphills. This is where I got into trouble. When I got to the top of the hill, I didn’t see any markers and had to make a decision on which way to turn. I turned left when I should have turned right (seems to be pretty common in my life). I knew I had made a mistake because things got eerily quiet. For some reason I didn’t turn around and next thing I knew I found course markers and ended up back on the trail. I thought I was OK until I saw a sign that I knew was was too close and should have taken a lot longer to reach. I realized I had gone off course. I got off the course and tried to back track to where I made my mistake. I reentered the course, only at the wrong place. I ended up re-riding some of the course. Funny thing, when I found the corner where I made the wrong turn, there was yellow course marking tape on the ground - duh. I may have totally missed it or when it was broken, it flew way off course and I never saw it the first time. (Tracy and I walked the course after my race and someone had tied the tape back up).
I didn’t think I was that far off the leaders until I passed the guy whose wheel fell off - he knew Ryan and said I was 4-5 minutes behind. That sucked to hear. So then it was race management time. Go as hard as I could for 1.5 laps and try not to blow up. The 2nd lap finished pretty quickly and the third lap flew by. I was consistently passing riders and hoping to catch Ryan, but it didn’t happen. I ended up 2nd. Not a bad start to the season.
I keep thinking that if I had had the chance to pre ride the course, I wouldn’t have missed the turn. I also think that if I had stayed with Ryan instead of going off the front, I may have not missed the turn and ended up with a better result. But I also know I was riding well, felt strong and was fast. Missing a turn is racing, no big deal. So..if I/You get a chance to pre-ride a course, do it. And if the race is long enough, think about what you are doing while racing - be smart. Reffing ends this week so I’ll be able to hit the local Wed. night series on a regular basis. I’m heading to Spartenburg on the 18th for the StumpJump race. It’ll be a 27 miler that I’m looking forward too. Oh yeah, I met Brandon from Alabama. 
It was nice meeting up with another member of the 29er Crew. Makes it real easy to start a conversation with someone you don’t know!
