That's it.

Sunday was a bright and early morning as my race start was 9 am and I had and hour and a half drive ahead of me to get to Dark Mountain.  I got there a little later than I wanted, and the conditions looked curious at best.

I was greeted by the other racers in my class as I had been MIA for a while now.  It was great catching up with them, but that of course ate into what little time I had before the start.  I got a quick warm up in and the course looked great, and dry.  Even the little run off that goes through the start area was dry!  Before the start all the fog burned off - conditions were great!

Having ridden here last week with the 18 (not race pace) I figured I'd be solid with the 20.  Maybe I would have, had my legs not exploded.

I don't know what happened.  Was it the fact that I destroyed my legs at the gym?  I went for a ride Saturday, but it wasn't anything demanding?  Maybe I shouldn't have stayed on the wheel of the guy in front of me off the start and let them go through the flatter stuff ahead of me?  Or maybe, just maybe, I've lost some from not racing in a bit?

Who knows what exactly attributed to it.  But all I can say is I didn't have it.

It wasn't until the second climb that my legs came back and I felt like I could put anything into them, or even stand and push on climbs.  By then it was too late.  The guys in the wave behind me were already catching me so I pulled off to let them go... and got stuck letting them all go as I didn't have time to get back and up to speed before the next guy - so I did a little running in the gaps.

There had been talk of a beer at the top of Snake... if there was beer, I was stopping to have one as this "race" was over for me.  (There was no beer...)  I rode the trail, had some fun, but wasn't able to keep pushing it like I should have been during a race.

So that's a wrap for the season.  It's also probably a wrap for racing for Blood Sweat Gears.  My buddy Sean (my connection to the shop) is out of racing for the foreseeable future due to an overuse injury to his hip.  He was ordered off the bike for over 2 months and is now only getting the ok to leisurely ride - but is told he won't be able to race again.  And Denver is just too far for me to maintain a relationship with the shop.  Of course I'll wear the kit out and about, but I think I'll be racing for someone else (myself) next season.

Some random thoughts about this season:
I need to ride more.
I need to do more focused training.
I don't get nervous at the start anymore because I've come to realize that I really am just racing myself.
Confirmed once again, mountain bikers (as a whole) are good people.
If your race involves a free t-shirt, I will most likely be there!

Oh, and I did manage to finish 5th in the season standings... so that's something I suppose.            

De-ja-puke

When I moved down to North Carolina last July I had already been off the bike as our lives were consumed with getting the condo ready to sell and then the move itself. My buddy Sean and I decided to dip our toes into the race scene down here by entering the final race of the summer series, Dark Mountain. 

I don't know if it was nerves, the heat, the fact that I chugged a Gatorade prior to the start, or a combination of all three but I puked during the race. Fun. After recovering, I quite enjoyed the course. 

Sunday I drove up to Dark Mountain to give the course a once over and test out how the trail would treat the Glow Worm. I could certainly let it go a bit more on the downhills with the HiFi, but the Glow Worm handled the footy goodness just fine. I was able to ride everything as is, but will likely make a gearing adjustment to account for traffic on the climbs. 

The thing about Dark Mountain is there is very little flat. You are either climbing or descending for the most part. So an easier gear should not be too much of a detriment... that is until the very end of the race when the course pours out onto a flat field, which we proceed to do a lap around. If anyone is close behind they will likely overtake me here.  

So I'll have to hit it hard off the start and put as much in as I can on the initial climbs. Let it go as much as I can on the downhills. And just pedal, pedal, pedal damnit the rest of the way. 

It's the last race of the series, I've got to be out of it on the overall standings, but I'm excited to be racing again. 

WHEELS

Oh yeah, even if the moving of stuff wasn't a time consuming (and tiring) endeavor, I forgot to mention that the HiFi was out of commission for a bit.  It was wheel-less for about a week.  Just prior to the final race of the season  I attempted to get the HiFi back to tubeless.  I got the rear wheel with no problem... the front was a different story.  No matter what I did air was escaping around the stem.  I even caved and brought it into the LBS to see if they had some voodoo magic that would work.

Nope, shortly after leaving he called and said there was a problem with the rim itself.... I don't get it, I had it set up tubeless in the past.  I'm not sure if somehow the valve hole got worn and out of shape which then wouldn't allow a good seal from the tubeless stems... but I had to race with a tube up front.  Rims were ordered and new wheels were going to be built up.

Arch Ex - in white of course!

 Oh, but please don't think the process was that easy... no no no.  See, to save money I was having the LBS just switch everything over to the new rims.  But I get this call, you see.  My front hub was 28 spokes... the new rim is 32.  Why did the HiFi have 32 in back and 28 in front?  I dunno.  So a new front hub (luckily available at the shop) was bought and the front was laced up - leaving me with an extra (non-tubeless) front wheel.  But boy do they look sweet on the HiFi.

Itchin to ride.  Thing LOOKS faster already!
(pre internet, hence no Mac on the tool cabinet)

 I did get the heads up when I picked up the wheels that after a couple rides they might go out of true - so he told me to just bring the bike in and he'd get them back up and running.  I was glad to get the warning, cause I would have freaked if something went wrong with the new wheels.  So far so good I think.  But I'll get some more dirt under them before I bring it in.

First ride - two thumbs way up!

Does the white actually make the bike faster?
Well... the first aftermarket white thrown on was the saddle.  Faster.... dunno.  But enhanced performance (through improved comfort) yes indeed.  So white saddle correlates to speed.  CHECK.  Second upgrade - white handlebars.  Improved riding position, (somewhat) closer grip, improved handling - translation, I'm placed in a much more "racer friendly" position with the bars - CHECK.  Newly added white rims.  With limited rides, and no visits to previously ridden trails (yet), it's hard to say.  I'd say there is no lack of confidence in the rims.  And the white does look hot - so in the very least there may be a slight psychological boost.  And as we all know there are two sides of riding: the physical aspect, and the mental.  So, if nothing else, the white rims give a mental boost - CHECK.

White is fast - even when it's dirty.

YES!

I "raced" this weekend.

It was fun (minus the vomiting during the race).  It was a great trail.  A nice mixture of the southern style with a bit of the bumps I'm used to up on New England.  I could start throwing out a bunch of excuses/would-have could-haves right about now but I'm not going to.  All I want to say is at the end of the day it was a great race - in that it reminded me of the joy (and pain) of racing mountain bikes.

The race also brought to light just how small the world really is.  I got to meet fellow blogger Chris at the race.

I even got some inside top secret info on what's going down over at B-43 headquarters.  But I won't spill the beans.  I will say it's very cool stuff and I'm envious for sure!!

My buddy Sean raced and had a good showing.

We got to hang out with our LBS guys out there and now I've got some new rims on the way to remedy my issues with the tubeless set up.  I'll get into that when they are all set up and ready to roll though.

I'm looking forward to next season already - hopefully I can get a full season in.  Plus, we have a winter season down here so I won't be stuck on trainer intervals all winter like this year.  It's a whole new ball game - time for me to step up and represent for NE.

It felt sooooo damn good to get out there and race again.  I guess I'm just a positive person, but even with not so stellar results I can always see the room to improve, and hold on to the desire to do so.  PLUS, the weather is finally turning to rider friendly temps.  Time to start planning some camping/riding trips in the mountains!