I optimistically took my geared bike to the XC Nationals on Sunday. The field was strong,with most of the usual suspects in Masters 30-39.
Warmed up fairly decently and felt good. From the start attacked and made it to ride in 3rd place. Just before the Eye dropper the first and second rider crashed. I was able to avoid the crash and rode down the Eye dropper first. Just over a minute into the race and I am leading already! From there on all I needed to do is put the hammer down and maintain a pace that no-one else could keep up. So I did put the hammer down,but towards the top of the course I noticed that only rider not able to keep up my pace was me. Graham,Mike,Steve and Gord Jewett was still on my wheel. Then when I popped they just rode pass by me. Ouch. Took me a good 1.5 lap to recover. Started some hopeless effort to chase down the guys,but my legs were not cooperating. My downhill skills were crappy again –need to ride on the trails more. Steve Martins from Hardcore was about twice as fast on every technical downhill. I gapped him on the climbs then he caught me quickly in the downhills.
Ended up finishing 6th with no legs left.
Gordon Jewett took the national champ’s jersey,while Graham finished 2nd,Robin McKeever in 3rd. Gord and Robin are Vancouver 2010 Olympian XC skiers (try to beat their cardio-vascular system…),Graham is a world cup racer athlete hidden in the skin of a stay home dad from Medicine Hat. They all did a fantastic job.
ride on.
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