Seven Oaks Race Report

Well I definitely felt about as unprepared as you could get for a race going into last weekend. I was completely trashed after the Lake Ahquabi weekend and just plain needed a break. I only rode into work for over a week. Finally last Wednesday, after getting all registered for school, getting my FASFA crap in line, I came home and knew I needed a ride. Having only been on a bike about 5-6 times for about 90-100 miles of commuting, I was interested to see how I felt. Rode some gravel and everything responded well after warming up. My back had also been really tight after Ahquabi and I of course did nothing before race weekend to make it better.

So Sunday rolled around and I rolled up to Boone with a crew of the usual suspects. The stupid weather made it so pre-riding the course sometime previously during that week an impossibility. So I was pretty much going into race day blind. I hate that. That is what this season is about though. Getting familiar with the IMBCS races. So I hit up a pre-ride lap that was quite abbreviated with Nick. Based on it I stupidly left my 36-19 on and called it good. That turned out to be a mistake.

The gear worked well for the start. Seeing as I hadn't ridden too much I was tentative at the start. Knowing full well I shouldn't but knowing that I had missed some of the course, I decided it was better to settle in behind some that were more familiar with the course. It turned out not to be too bad of a move. I should have grabbed Jed's wheel though seeing as he has been really strong and that we have been riding at a somewhat similar level. His fitness/strength is definitely higher that mine and he was definitely familiar with the course. My bad. I did however get into a group with Kevin and Shockey who after my fumbles gapped off of me a little.

So slowly things settled in and I found the backside of the course laden with freaking uphill switchbacks, punchy steep climbs, and slow weird drawn out climbs. About 3/4's of the way through lap one I felt like crap. My gear choice felt huge and I was sort of struggling to keep up with Kev and Shockey. I already knew I was out of the money (beer) for the unofficial SS MTB State Champs. Jed was checked out. Kevin pulled away from Shockey, and I finally gapped back up to him. Descending into the lower ski area, I came around Ben due to my larger gear and signalled for him to grab on and draft off of me. He was climbing well and I wanted to pull him up to Kevin. Didn't work out.

I got up to Kev and rode with him for around half of the lap. He got caught up where I had during lap one and I went around him. We rode together for a while, but I had to punch it on the climbs. At the end of the lap I was feeling a little squirrelyness from my front tire, but I had set my pressure low so I ignored it. I had a decent gap on the other two so I just held strong and kept trucking.

Going into lap 3 I ran most of the steep parts of the openning singletrack section and then dove into the descent to the bottom of the beginning of the course. Once I hit the base I heard the dreaded hiss of a cut. Shit. It was slightly spewing Stan's every revolution. I stopped and let the fluid pool to get it to seal. It did and I kept riding. Then it busted open again 100ft down the trail. I stopped this time and sealed it. I hesitated and knew I had to hit it with CO2. As I was hitting it Kev came around and gave me a little sympathy. He was riding strong and bouncing back. I never caught him.

I had to settle for 4th on the day. After the flat I was just a little knocked down. I haven't ever had a "mechanical" in a race before so I was due. I've been really lucky. After I hit the tire with CO2 I had too much pressure and just couldn't get back in the groove. I did manage to keep the gap at 20 seconds though and that was good.

Congrats to Cam for shredding our collective faces off one more time. You are on another planet. For sure. Gears might be coming, but not this season for fear of the of sticks and cable cutters. Jed good race. Wish I would have known the course and gotten my panties out of a bunch and just started as strong as I should have. You still would have cleaned house. Kevin, much earned "win". Keep those legs going during the week. Shockey good race too. Glad to be able to drink some beers with you and sorry about the van/beer incident. To everyone else see you sometime soon. Not the time trials weekend though. I'll be Gnomefesting.