Hmm…that’s a lot of bikes.
What a day.
There were 29 riders lined up in the 45C+ class today, probably the biggest turnout in this class all year. The entire C-class field was 201 riders strong.
The start was short and intense – an abbreviated run off the line to the first turn – a 180-degree hairpin followed by a relatively short s-turn before funneling down to the entrance to the woods.
My strategy for the starts is simple, and borne more out of a sense of self-preservation than any attempt to score well: try to stay out of trouble and not wreck or get caught up in someone elses wreck. That means, for me, starting on one extreme end of the line or the other and getting going quickly. If you can make it to and through the first bottleneck – in this case, the first 180 – cleanly and ahead of the pack, you’re usually home-free.
Getting into the woods first is another matter entirely, and something I need to work on.
The flag went up and the KTM started on the first kick. Dumped the clutch, pinned the throttle and it was on. Got off the line near the front of the pack but lost a bunch of positions at the 180 and ended up getting into the woods in around 10th or 11th.
F-Class start. Yikes!
The first lap was a bit rough, but my first laps are always rough… It was a short one, under two miles and through scoring before heading out for the first full-length (7-mile) lap.
I came through scoring in 9th place and, once through the scoring tent, got on the throttle hard. Although there was a lot of new trail cut for this race, the route in and out of the scoring area has apparently remained unchanged for years, which means ruts, roots, and all other sorts of general nastiness. I mention this because about a hundred yards or so out, I lost it in some of this nastiness and crashed hard. Highsided right into a tree. Did a quick “am I dead/paralyzed” inventory to make sure fingers, toes and other important stuff still worked, picked up the bike and got back to it. Several guys had gotten past for position, so I had some serious work to do.
The forks had gotten tweaked in the wreck (bars pointing one way, wheel pointing another) so hopefully this wouldn’t pose a problem.
The first thing I noticed is that this wreck didn’t slow me down at all. In fact if anything, it knocked some focus into me. I started picking off positions almost immediately to get myself back into the game.
On the hunt – Chasing down Dillard for 5th place
Came through scoring at the end of lap 2 still in 9th place, but had now caught the tail end of what I call the “S Train” – a group of riders in my class who were all running nearly identical lap times and were well within striking distance of each other. I was right there…
Got past 37s (Tony Carthan) for position somewhere on this lap, moving me into 8th by the end of lap 3. I was still in the S Train, but laps were winding down and if there were a move to be made, it would have to come on this lap.
On the 4th lap, I picked up two more spots when both 59s (Andy Vasquez, who I had been following for a while earlier in the race – I could catch him but could not get past him – dude is s-m-o-o-t-h) and 50s (Mark Coolidge) went off course. That put me in 6th and directly behind 82s (Kevin Dillard) who was in 5th. I was right-freakin’-there, but once again found myself behind someone I was a bit faster than but not quite good enough to get around. This guy made zero mistakes that I could capitalize on.
Within the next few minutes, the S Train had reassembled. It was Dillard, me, Vasquez and Carthan wheel-to-wheel, hauling ass and each praying we didn’t screw up and that the other guy would. At the same time I was trying to stay focused, I couldn’t help but think how cool it was to be running competitively with these guys after the kind of year I’ve had.
Then it happened. Coming around a turn, I either missed a shift or stalled (don’t remember, doesn’t matter, sucked just as hard either way). Got passed almost immediately by Vasquez but got fired and moving again just in time to keep 37s from getting by also. I set off after Vasquez hard, but a slower bike from another class was between us, and the guy wouldn’t give me any room.
It’s generally accepted practice that if someone not in your class is in your way, you can yell – typically something like ‘woo-wooooo’ – and they give you room to pass cleanly. This guy wouldn’t move, and instead sped up to try to stay in front of me and ended up riding over his head and beyond his ability. I think I saw the trouble he was getting himself into before he did, but still not quick enough. Before I could preemptively adjust to the crash I knew he was about to have…he crashed, and I slid into him and came to a stop.
37s on my tail
So, here comes Carthan with 24s (Ken Plotz) right behind him. Carthan cuts right and tries to short-cut through the woods to get around us but got hung up himself.. In the mean time, Plotz comes around my left and almost takes the spot from me, but I got clear of the crashed rider at the last possible moment and throttled out of there before he could complete the pass (hats off to Plotz, he could easily have pressed the issue and made it ugly for one or both of us). You can see this last-lap mess unfold here courtesy Tony Carthan’s helmet cam @ about the 2-minute mark.
We were maybe a mile or two from the finish; I knew that barring any mistakes by the riders in front of me, the chances of picking up any more spots were slim. With Plotz on my ass and Carthan close behind him, all I could do was ride hard as possible and protect my line, which is exactly what I did.
Through scoring the final time, took the checkers in 7th! Plotz finished 14 seconds behind me and Carthan 4 seconds behind him.
This was an awesome race, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the season….except to add a few more races to the schedule – It feels like I’m just getting warmed up 🙂
To top it all off, this race also doubled as a fundraiser for Lincoln Charities. We were able to raise over $1000 via pledges on my performance today. My heartfelt thanks to all who contributed and made this possible.
The take-away from this race: If I’m to finish any closer to the front of this highly competitive class, I’ll absolutely have to to get better at passing, and get more aggressive on the starts.
And with that, I think this will be the last post in the “The Comeback” category; it’s safe to say after this run that the road to recovery is fairly complete.