So, I was trawling around the internet one day, and I stumbled on this series of races. It made me think. Hmmm. That looks as though it wouldn't matter if/that I'm rubbish. At the very least it'd ensure that I get at least one ride on real dirt each week. Maybe I should give it a go... :confused:
I managed to talk one of my friends into being a little bit curious, so we went along for a look-see on the first night. We stood in the pouring rain and watched everyone go 'round. We were hooked already! :D Besides, there were only two women racing; as long as we could complete each race, we'd have to end up scoring some points (top ten in each cat get points)! They change the course a bit each week, but you can go ride all the trails during the week (for a small fee) as long as there are no events on. We decided to go along on the Monday (a holiday, luckily) and check it out before we made our final decision. Very worthwhile.
Wednesday dawned and I was really quite excited. As the day dragged on I bacame more and more and more (and more!) scared. :eek: By four o'clock I was about ready to explode. Decided not to tempt fate by having that afternoon coffee after all. Thankfully, by then it was just about time to grab something to eat and get changed and all. T was swinging by my place at five and we were going to ride up to the cycle circuit. We made pretty good time - forty-five minutes at a semi-leisurely pace (although it may have just been the nervous energy...).
Got there, filled out our forms, twisty-tied our numbers on and headed out for a practice lap. Definitely glad we did that. There was one monster climb that we had seen before, but there turned out to be a second one that was almost as bad. You know the kind: your legs need to be in the granniest of grannies, but you haven't got a hope of traction until you're well into your middle ring. Suffered a catestrophic twisty tie failure out there somewhere, but at least that was well within my mechanical capabilities (and my number didn't come off completely). Headed back to the club rooms and chilled out (if such a thing can be said of two pants-wettingly nervous folk :rolleyes: ) for forty minutes or so before the race.
There were eight women in the line-up this week (plus one in the youth categories): one vet, five masters and two in sport. Halleluia! I couldn't do worse than second in my class! There were only one or two in the women's line up who seemed to be taking it really seriously, so it was nice to have a bit of a laugh with the others while we waited to start.
Got off to a reasonable enough start - behind five, ahead of two. The novice men started just behind us, so about half of them passed me really quickly. One of the women who was behind me passed me on the first monster uphill (not hard, given that I was doing a dead stop, trying to get a foot out before the thistles could get me kind of a move). Next I saw of her she was in the grass, bike upended, tube in hand.
I'm pretty sure everyone and their dog passed me at some point, but most of them were really clear and polite about it. One or two surprised me because the front person called out, but then the person behind didn't. Oh, and the leading woman (also the one who seemed to be taking it most seriously - possibly not a coincidence...) called out that she was coming through, but didn't tell me what side, even after I'd asked. When she called out again she got quite a loud "Well tell me what side and I can move!" It did the trick. [ETA: No, wait! I passed one of the novice men (he was completely done for by then) on a downhill quite near the end. Go me! :p]
I never made it more than halfway up either of the monsters, and there was one other hill that got me right near the end in lap three. My drivetrain was making some pretty unhappy noises after a while. (Apparently I talk to my bike; one guy turned his head in surprise when he heard "Oh, for ****'s sake! Shut up an give me a gear! You're having your service on Tuesday!" - guess who was tired and cranky by this point... ;)). There were a couple of really fun bits too: one fab banked turn that you could go as fast around as you dared, plus a neat wee bump I got a sweet little air off of on my last lap (the marshall there even gave me a cheer for it :D). Oh, and luckily I had spotted the photographer at the top of a tough little climb, so he got a big ol' toothy grin instead of a death grimace. I'll post the photo when it's up. If it's good, I might even have me a new avatar. :)
All in all, a great experience. Everyone was really friendly and encouraging. I even met my goal of three laps (I was unbelievably glad not to have to do another! :p), and my top secret, don't tell anyone goal of doing it in under an hour (you finish whatever lap you are on when the leading expert bloke wins - not sure when they give him the bell, but I'd guess whenever he comes around at about the 45-50 minute mark). There's eight more races (and then a team race, but I have no team), so I hope to be completeling four laps by the end of it.
And there you have it. Can't wait for next week! :cool:
