I decided to move up to sport XC this year, and today I survived my first XC race in the sport cat.
It was BRUTAL!
The race was at Hunter ski Mtn (Catskills- NY) and my goal was to finish, and hopefully not come in last.
So as I startred pre riding I realized my first mistake - It was so frigging muddy and I had my dry conditions tires on, and yup I had almost all my tools and spare parts but no other tires
The course was tough, 3 spots in paticular - about 1/4 mile in was a long super steep lung burning granny gear get off your bike fireroad section (it was at least 1/2 mile long) - I only saw 1 sport rider make the climb with out walking.
Another spot was a combo of several uphil singletrack sections that was full of wet rocks/roots/etc (more granny gear & a couple hike a bikes for me)
The last hard spot was a steep DH section (I felt like I was riding at platty but with 1/3rd of suspension I'm used to)
The last lap was a tough one (me=bonked) but I had a guy in my group about 20 ft back so I just kept pushing and finally pulled away from in the DH section
after 1 hour & 45 minutes of riding (11.5 miles) the race was finally over!!
I was very happy with how I did - 5th out of 9
ps:mistake # 2 was when I followed a guy off couse in the 1st lap - prob. lost a minute or so doh!
Yes, it was muddy! (see pic)
It was BRUTAL!
The race was at Hunter ski Mtn (Catskills- NY) and my goal was to finish, and hopefully not come in last.
So as I startred pre riding I realized my first mistake - It was so frigging muddy and I had my dry conditions tires on, and yup I had almost all my tools and spare parts but no other tires
The course was tough, 3 spots in paticular - about 1/4 mile in was a long super steep lung burning granny gear get off your bike fireroad section (it was at least 1/2 mile long) - I only saw 1 sport rider make the climb with out walking.
Another spot was a combo of several uphil singletrack sections that was full of wet rocks/roots/etc (more granny gear & a couple hike a bikes for me)
The last hard spot was a steep DH section (I felt like I was riding at platty but with 1/3rd of suspension I'm used to)
The last lap was a tough one (me=bonked) but I had a guy in my group about 20 ft back so I just kept pushing and finally pulled away from in the DH section
after 1 hour & 45 minutes of riding (11.5 miles) the race was finally over!!
I was very happy with how I did - 5th out of 9
ps:mistake # 2 was when I followed a guy off couse in the 1st lap - prob. lost a minute or so doh!
Yes, it was muddy! (see pic)
