GCS #3: Ft. Yargo MTB Race

The race was 20 miles over familiar trails from a month ago when they had the SS championships although this race was run in reverse. It was warm, dry and dusty and I felt pretty crumby from coming down with some sort of intestinal virus the night before. I was surprised by how many people attended the race and there were 16 guys in the SS class.



The start to the race took you through two narrow trees and then a nasty, powdered right hand turn. I did not notice this so I lined up on the outside left and after the gun I was way back in the field. I tried to get back up there but lost contact with the leaders on the first significant climb. There are no legs after 5 miles and soon I realized that I was no longer in a race but a fast paced training ride. I felt horrible and each small hill was hard to climb, especially with 1 gear. To make matters worse I had decided to wear the state championship jersey in this race, further embarassing myself.



After 1 lap I was ready to end it but figured what else did I have to do, so I went along for the second lap. I finished 11th out of 16, the race category was "open" and there were some young, fast guys on the single-speeds. The winner was doing 44.5 minute laps while I was doing 52 minute laps.



I spent last night and most of today sweating, shivering and nauseating my way through and hopefully I can get back on the bike tomorrow.



Here is a picture to commemorate the whole ordeal (notice the bloated gut!)