Team Mango

another boring success

last weekend’s race in the beautiful methow valley was a grab bag of disappointments — almost missing the 9:30am registration deadline; frantically searching for a checkbook because i forgot to bring cash for the race entry fee; suffering my worst case of pre-race jitters and nausea; and a persistent drivetrain problem on my bike. but that’s not to say i didn’t enjoy it…

oh yeah, and the course was kind of dull too.

the course (3 laps, each 7 miles long with 1000’ of climbing) consisted basically of a long climb up a fireroad punctuated by a couple forays into the trees which looped back to the fireroad, and an essentially non-technical, gently-curving, lightning-fast singletrack descent which, because of the speeds involved, afforded little opportunity for passing. so the race, i think, was pretty much decided on the climbs.

from the starting gun, i found my favorite mid-pack position and tried to find a pace i could sustain up the hill without wiping myself out for the rest of the race. when the course dove briefly into the trees, i discovered that my middle chainring was having severe problems skipping whenever i cranked hard on an uphill. so after repeated explatives, i relinquished myself to avoiding my middle chainring altogether.

at the top of the climb, we dove into the downhill singletrack section, reaching speeds upwards of 35mph, and often times sucking up the dust of a rider just a couple feet in front while trailing blindly behind in his/her dust.

and so it went, up the hill trying to pass as many people as possible (and trying not to be passed), then coasting quite quickly back down to the bottom. pam and alexander formed my support crew and cheered me on while i pedaled gasping up the road (actually alexander slept the whole race so he must have found it dull as well).

while i didn’t feel especially strong this time around, i ended up with my best finish to date in this race series… 18th out of 50 in “sport men 30-39” — almost the top third!!! but i’ve found my mediocrity is working against me. if you remove those riders who are no longer eligible for overall point standings for the series (i.e. they’ve missed more than two races), my current overall standing is 28th out of 35 in my class. oh well, in either case, i’m not taking home any prize money.

next race is the “greenwater thriller”, june 21st in greenwater, washington, just north of mount rainier.

Posted by jason at June 4, 2003 10:43 AM