My leg held up well on Saturday's ride. Like previous week's I stayed in the small chainring the whole time. I just had more incentive this time so that I didn't get carried away and strain whatever had been bothering me last week. The fact that Patrick's knee was bothering him helped too. He wanted to be cautious and cut the ride short, so Mark and I went along. The wind made for some tougher riding at times but it was not so bad. Mark and I added a little extra loop along Levee Rd and we ended up with 84 kms. The wind was stiffer down on the flat farmlands than up on the bluffs. The stretch going west alongside 255 was a good test. I pushed it and had a real good effort. Despite the hard work, it was tough to stay above 30 km/h.
Sunday we had Bubba 3 at JB. As expected, a good portion of the cross country course was used for our race. We didn't use the areas by the amphitheater or Powder Magazine Room, though.
The course was quite good. A short uphill start, turn, very slight downhill to a 180 and back up. As the ground steepened, there were three barriers and then a long straight descent. Toward the bottom you had to ride the good line to avoid a couple good sized grouping of tree roots and plow through what became a very rutted piece of soft, thick mud. Then through a small wooded section and up the hill toward the start area, only to turn left and snake through a couple off-camber hairpins that opened up into a series of turns on the ballfield, then onto the gravel road and then the slight incline up to the finish line.
It was a quick course but with enough hills to make the effort hard. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My heart wasn't much into warming up as I just rode around aimlessly for a short while. Everyone lining up earlier than I expected didn't help my enthusiasm as I was parked at the back of the pack... again. But, when the whistle blew I got the adrenaline flowing. The Mack guy took off like a bat out of hell again leaving the rest of us to fight for the best loser spot. Through the wooded section there was a small gap forming between my group and a lead group. It was decision time, and I took the aggressive approach and bridged up by the base of the hill.
From then on we had a real good race. There was an ebb and flow as a group of 7 or 8 guys were in the mix at one time or another. Guys would open a gap and come back. Some would drift off and come back. The mix of guys seemed to be ever-changing. Eventually, Mike and Sven rolled away, leaving Pat, Yielding and myself fighting for 4th. Approaching one to go, Yielding was leading and went down in one of the slight off-cambers at the end of the ball field. I had no way to go and went head on into his lower back. Over the handlebars I went. Patrick managed to slow down and avoid the pileup. We untangled ourselves and resumed racing. Yielding had more jump than me and opened a good gap that I couldn't close despite a nice charge in the last part of the race. I got closer but it wasn't enough. Sixth place again this week.
Sunday we had Bubba 3 at JB. As expected, a good portion of the cross country course was used for our race. We didn't use the areas by the amphitheater or Powder Magazine Room, though.
The course was quite good. A short uphill start, turn, very slight downhill to a 180 and back up. As the ground steepened, there were three barriers and then a long straight descent. Toward the bottom you had to ride the good line to avoid a couple good sized grouping of tree roots and plow through what became a very rutted piece of soft, thick mud. Then through a small wooded section and up the hill toward the start area, only to turn left and snake through a couple off-camber hairpins that opened up into a series of turns on the ballfield, then onto the gravel road and then the slight incline up to the finish line.
It was a quick course but with enough hills to make the effort hard. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My heart wasn't much into warming up as I just rode around aimlessly for a short while. Everyone lining up earlier than I expected didn't help my enthusiasm as I was parked at the back of the pack... again. But, when the whistle blew I got the adrenaline flowing. The Mack guy took off like a bat out of hell again leaving the rest of us to fight for the best loser spot. Through the wooded section there was a small gap forming between my group and a lead group. It was decision time, and I took the aggressive approach and bridged up by the base of the hill.
From then on we had a real good race. There was an ebb and flow as a group of 7 or 8 guys were in the mix at one time or another. Guys would open a gap and come back. Some would drift off and come back. The mix of guys seemed to be ever-changing. Eventually, Mike and Sven rolled away, leaving Pat, Yielding and myself fighting for 4th. Approaching one to go, Yielding was leading and went down in one of the slight off-cambers at the end of the ball field. I had no way to go and went head on into his lower back. Over the handlebars I went. Patrick managed to slow down and avoid the pileup. We untangled ourselves and resumed racing. Yielding had more jump than me and opened a good gap that I couldn't close despite a nice charge in the last part of the race. I got closer but it wasn't enough. Sixth place again this week.
1 Comments:
Hey Jim, nice racing, that was a nice charge at the end.
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