Today I was faced with a very difficult decision; where to ride, my choices were earl's trails, bachelor street, mount tom and wendell...god life is rough.
I decided to do a pretty epic day of riding, and not force myself to choose. After class I headed to bachelor street for my first ride of the day, and had a great ride save for a flat tire (I can't wait to get the edge wheels set up tubeless) and some bugs. After bachelor street I went over to earl's trails for another hour of ride time. While at earl's trails my brakes were really getting annoying, so after checking them out I saw that the pads were worn all the way to the metal, that explains the noise! When I finished my ride at earl's trails I gave Mickey a call to find out how long my brake pads should be lasting, and to order up some new ones. After talking with Mickey, I headed over to Spooky bikes to drop off my bike, change some stickers, and to pick up Carl's bike so I could ride that and get a feeling for how it rides compared to my bike. While I was there I recruited Jake to ride with the Bob Crew in Wendell.
After I left Mickey's I went home to clean up the bike for Wendell later. From the driveway testing I noticed that the 6061 darkside was a lot like the mustang, quick, short, and very snappy. Dad and I headed up to Wendell at 6 to meet the crew at 6:20 at the ranger's station. When we got to the parking lot there were quite a few people there getting ready to ride including Jake, Stef, Shizna, Jason, Jamal, Mitch, Malley, and others. After I got my riding stuff on, Bob drove in and got everybody gathered up and told us the plan.
When we left the parking lot dad and I took most of the group out to the pond loop to start our ride, then to maple leaf, bob is fat, and then the main event....Mormon hollow. Mormon hollow since it was completed last year has been almost unbearable to ride, and very punishing. Somehow over the winter the trail transformed into one of the most fun trails in western mass! When we reached the bottom of Mormon hollow Jake, Jason, and I waited for the rest of the group and decided that we were going to climb Hannah Swarton, and then do Moose tracks, and the M&M for the second half of our ride.
We got back to the parking lot just as it was getting dark, what a great first wendell ride of the season!!!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Pro race at farmington
After fighting a cold for about a week and a half, I finally started feeling well enough for race day in Farmington CT. The weather promised some intense heat, and the course promised a very fast pace and a true test of fitness. Mom Jeff and I drove down to Farmington just in time for Jeff to get registered, and figure out the Mustang before hitting the line. Unfortunately three crashes and a flat tire forced Jeff to drop out of his first Cat II race...better luck next time.
As two o'clock started to roll around I got ready to head over to the start line, checking that I had bottles, tube, tools, etc. I got over to the start line and got in the second row of pro riders figuring that I had no right to be in the first row. (Mistake number one) When the whistle blew my handlebars got tangled up in the riders next to me so I was pretty much the last rider off the line, not exactly what I was hoping for.
After my rather dismal start I was able to pick off a few riders before the first single track section, and get myself into the pack. The first lap was extremely fast, and the top riders got away from the group I was riding with very easily. In the second lap I dropped the riders in the group I had been with for the first lap in hopes to catch more people. During the second and third laps I picked off some people that had fallen off of the front group, and was finally able to settle into a smooth rhythm.
The fourth and fifth laps were pretty much a blur, and not much happened, save for the last quarter mile. In this chunk of the last lap I was able to catch up with one last rider, and after clawing my way up to his wheel, we went down just before the line he broke one of the spokes in my wheel, and I bent his front rim a little.
Overall I felt comfortable (as comfortable as racing allows) and strong through the whole race, and finished in 13th place of 21 riders that started, and was 12 minutes off of the lead. Each race is going to be a true test of both fitness, bike handling skills, and tactics (which I need to work on a lot), and this season I will learn a lot!
As two o'clock started to roll around I got ready to head over to the start line, checking that I had bottles, tube, tools, etc. I got over to the start line and got in the second row of pro riders figuring that I had no right to be in the first row. (Mistake number one) When the whistle blew my handlebars got tangled up in the riders next to me so I was pretty much the last rider off the line, not exactly what I was hoping for.
After my rather dismal start I was able to pick off a few riders before the first single track section, and get myself into the pack. The first lap was extremely fast, and the top riders got away from the group I was riding with very easily. In the second lap I dropped the riders in the group I had been with for the first lap in hopes to catch more people. During the second and third laps I picked off some people that had fallen off of the front group, and was finally able to settle into a smooth rhythm.
The fourth and fifth laps were pretty much a blur, and not much happened, save for the last quarter mile. In this chunk of the last lap I was able to catch up with one last rider, and after clawing my way up to his wheel, we went down just before the line he broke one of the spokes in my wheel, and I bent his front rim a little.
Overall I felt comfortable (as comfortable as racing allows) and strong through the whole race, and finished in 13th place of 21 riders that started, and was 12 minutes off of the lead. Each race is going to be a true test of both fitness, bike handling skills, and tactics (which I need to work on a lot), and this season I will learn a lot!
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