BC Bike Race Day 7

A short and generally insufficient sleep led to a cool but sunny morning. My bike was one of the last ones off the truck into the bike area, then it was off to warmup.

We climbed right off the bat straight up the hill for however many kilometers, looped back down, then back up again to a back entrance to the gem Comfortably Numb with all the rock roll ins. Had the makings of an awesome day. Thought it might be fun to post a better result on a day if I could.

I rode as hard as I could on the climb and held a better place than most of the week, which was great going into the first descent. Picked up a few spots on the way down. Held on the next climb and hike a bike, even picked up a couple. Started Comfortably Numb in good place, and had ridden it just in fall, and was already around new faces before the fun even began.

Then the fun sort of eroded.

I flatted. Big air'd it which was good for a while. But then I did another flat. Catch here is my package of race stuff fell out of my pocket yesterday, and despite many riders saying they saw it on upper Half Nelson, it didn't reappear. Had to tube it and beg a pump. In this time the two of these happened I was waay back. Tried to tube it fast, but I got bitten by I think a billion mosquitoes during the change. These all added up to a bit of a buzz kill.

I got back in the riding line, and it was a slow procession down the obstacles. When it's spread out and there's like the odd person around, a pass makes sense. When you're in a string of 30 struggling to stay on, and the trail is narrow, it's kinda not worth it.

To cap it off, on a rock roll in, it's typical (and fine) for people to pause as it becomes visible then roll in. I was 4th man back in a pause queue and just sorta slow rolled/track standing, then a guy rolled into me from behind, non drivetrain side. I lost my balance and took foot out, but his tire/bike was there. I clunked down in slow motion on my left knee. To a sharp rock. Nice. Blood on my crank, water bottle and leg. Kinda deep but I scrubbed and polysporin'd it after.

So from there I fully officially gave up mentally and coasted in. I debated waiting 20 minutes or whatever to just chill and ride clear trail, but the mosquito memories didn't support that. Plus there'd be beer at the end, and it seemed like beer time.

Trish won the overall because she's more awesomer as time goes on. Jeff held on to second, Andy third. Marty's partner Ricky was violently ill but Marty pushed him on the hill and they lost 16mins but not 20 so held on for 2nd. The cute Belgian girl in the open class doesn't seem super popular as her boyfriend whom I think dropped out for some reason this week (out of official standings anyway) still rides and he just pushes her up the climbs. Not sure the other girls are big fans of this.

Really fun race overall. I like the short format. I like the social time. I like the perfect weather and the almost perfect mechanicals record, except for the last 25 minutes. So fun!