Yup, that's me coming in just a few feet behind first place in the Expert category.What really bites is that if the finish line had been 30 yards closer, I would've won the race.
I lead the last lap and a half, however when we got to the finish, I got confused and hesitated for a second to figure out where the finish line was and the rider on second place took advantage of that and took away the win.
At least I am hoping to get this as a lesson to always familiarize myself with the finish line before the race.
Even though I finished 2dn, it was a positive experience. The race was tough. The picture above shows us a the beginning of the race. There were to other Procon riders in my group, Rob (#27 at my right) and Art (at my left). Rob had finished 2nd in the previous race at McDowell, the one I couldn't make it to because of the accident, so the plan was to stick to his wheel and see how long I could last.
I made things hard for me from the start by choosing a wrong place at the start. I got stuck behind some slower starters, so before we hit the single-track I was 20 places back. It took me nearly 20 minutes of hard work to catch up to the leaders. Once I joined the leader group, I had very little time to recover because soon the attacks started and the group of 6 got reduced to 5 about 30 minutes into the race, then to 4 and by the time we reach the half-way point of the first lap, there were only three of us. I sat in third for the rest of the lap while keeping the two leaders within visual distance, unfortunately a small crash with a Semi-pro rider that had a mechanical problem slowed me a little and gave me a few scratches on my elbow, however I didn't loose any places and was able to get back and shorten the difference to the leaders on the last climb.
After going through the feed zone and getting a new bottle from Norma, I decided to bridge up to them, which I did half way through the second lap. In the lead was fellow Procon rider Rob Shaver and Zach a rider for SanTan Racing. Rob had a mechanical and yield 2nd place to me, then Zach went off the trail for a second and that's when I got to 1st place.
The rest of the lap, I rode in the front followed by Zach and Rob, then Rob had a flat and a crash right before the end of the lap.
On the third lap, Zach just sat on my wheel all the way to the finish. I knew his only option was to attack me on the last climb, so I tried to shake him off a couple of times but could only get a small gap, so several times I had to back down. Then I decided to just conserve energy for the last part. As expected he tried passing me on the last climb, but we had some traffic ahead and I also had increased the pace to I got to the top of the final downhill first and we flew down while he tried to pass me where ever he though there was a chance. I blocked all his attempts then on the last 30 yards decided to slow down to make a right turn onto the finish, just to find out that the finish was straight ahead. By the time I realized that, Zach had noticed and got the inside line then it was impossible for me to beat him to the line.
After all, a very exciting race. I got second while Rob came back from a mechanical and a crash and secured 4th, so two Proconers in the Expert podium.
The next race is at White Tanks park in about a month, then we head up to McDowell on March 30 for the first NORBA National of 2007, so March is going to be a month of a lot of training.
Thanks to all and have a great week!
Pura Vida!
Jeff
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