6Hr Race Report
Waking up at 5am for your birthday may not be everyone's cup of tea. And to be honest I'm not sure if it's mine just yet! Might take some getting used to.
Anyway the day started reasonably relaxed, except halfway to Tam's house, I'd realized that I'd forgotten my Accel Gel's which I knew I'd really miss if I didn't have them. So at 6:16am, I turn around and go back home therefore making me a weee bit late picking up Tamyka. She didn't mind too much, but I'm sure she wouldn't have knocked back an extra 15min in the sack. Poor baby.
Did I mention it was raining? Yes buckets were dropping from the sky and it looked like we were in for a muddy 'ole time. Unfortunately for me, it stopped. I say unfortunately 'cos I like riding in the mud and I know a lot of people don't (or can't) and with my fitness level a bit sub-par, I needed all the help I could get! Bummer.
We started with a bit of a lame run, Le Mans style, and although I knew there were lots of really quick people there I didn't want to get left behind too much 'cos it'd suck to be having to pass all the slow people who thought for some reason that they'd be able to maintain their early pace. It's quite hard riding 20cm from the guy in front on a trail you've never seen before. Thankfully the people in front of me weren't too gumby and there were only a couple of close calls when some unco dude stacked all by him/herself on a really easy bit of track.
The thing that got me early on was that there were some really unco dudes riding really slow and not helping people to pass, which isn't really cool, but understandable considering the type of event this is (ie 'fun'). But worse than that were the semi-fast dudes that thought they were it and a bit and just went off if they had to wait behind someone for more than 3 seconds. Tossers. Thing is, the really fast guys were generally really good about passing and were smart enough to realize that waiting 10 seconds for somewhere to pass didn't really hurt their time and kept their cool demeanour intact.
Tamyka had a good ride and didn't have any major dives, and I came through pretty unscathed too. I think she was a bit shitty at me for not being at checkpoint and forcing her to do two laps, but my back was pretty sore (it has been lately) and I really needed a bit of a rub on the bum to sort it out (which it did).
We managed 5th in the 2 person mixed which is pretty reasonable considering we didn't give a toss about quick rider changes, we hadn't been riding much, there were two pro's in front (one of the female riders had this fantastic panting thing going on which I'm sure gave all the guys wood) and we're on pretty cheap bikes. I had fun anyway, and that's gotta count for something doesn't it?
Thanks to Tamyka for dragging my sorry ass along too!
Aiiiii
Anyway the day started reasonably relaxed, except halfway to Tam's house, I'd realized that I'd forgotten my Accel Gel's which I knew I'd really miss if I didn't have them. So at 6:16am, I turn around and go back home therefore making me a weee bit late picking up Tamyka. She didn't mind too much, but I'm sure she wouldn't have knocked back an extra 15min in the sack. Poor baby.
Did I mention it was raining? Yes buckets were dropping from the sky and it looked like we were in for a muddy 'ole time. Unfortunately for me, it stopped. I say unfortunately 'cos I like riding in the mud and I know a lot of people don't (or can't) and with my fitness level a bit sub-par, I needed all the help I could get! Bummer.
We started with a bit of a lame run, Le Mans style, and although I knew there were lots of really quick people there I didn't want to get left behind too much 'cos it'd suck to be having to pass all the slow people who thought for some reason that they'd be able to maintain their early pace. It's quite hard riding 20cm from the guy in front on a trail you've never seen before. Thankfully the people in front of me weren't too gumby and there were only a couple of close calls when some unco dude stacked all by him/herself on a really easy bit of track.
The thing that got me early on was that there were some really unco dudes riding really slow and not helping people to pass, which isn't really cool, but understandable considering the type of event this is (ie 'fun'). But worse than that were the semi-fast dudes that thought they were it and a bit and just went off if they had to wait behind someone for more than 3 seconds. Tossers. Thing is, the really fast guys were generally really good about passing and were smart enough to realize that waiting 10 seconds for somewhere to pass didn't really hurt their time and kept their cool demeanour intact.
Tamyka had a good ride and didn't have any major dives, and I came through pretty unscathed too. I think she was a bit shitty at me for not being at checkpoint and forcing her to do two laps, but my back was pretty sore (it has been lately) and I really needed a bit of a rub on the bum to sort it out (which it did).
We managed 5th in the 2 person mixed which is pretty reasonable considering we didn't give a toss about quick rider changes, we hadn't been riding much, there were two pro's in front (one of the female riders had this fantastic panting thing going on which I'm sure gave all the guys wood) and we're on pretty cheap bikes. I had fun anyway, and that's gotta count for something doesn't it?
Thanks to Tamyka for dragging my sorry ass along too!
Aiiiii
posted by Kurt Howard at
12:56 PM
1 Comments:
Yay! Thanks Kurt, I had heaps of fun too, and I forgive you for not being there for me when I really, really needed you... hahaha! For anyone who cares, my report is here.
By
Tamyka Bell, at 10:54 AM
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