Going the Distance
I'm pretty much buried under a sea of software right now. I'm doing the final revisions of the manual for Hansen's Permits System and writing the main sections of the manual for Hansen's Tax Assessment System. As a result, i'm not finding much time to rant. We have an epic ride planned for memorial day, so expect a story about that. I'll make a not here as soon as i post it. -mw
Ok i found some time. I started to get really annoyed (again) at magazines. Probably about the way most people feel about me. So I ranted a little about Mountain Bike. Turned out, after I thought about it, they're really not all that bad. Check out the rant.
Ok, i'm going to toot my own horn here. I had one of the best races of my life at big bear and ended up 5th in the expert 35-39 class. Even better, my time placed me 9th in a hypothetical 30-39 class. If I can pull out a race like that at Deer Valley I may have a legitimate shot at qualifying for worlds! Of course I might get my ass kicked regally in Utah, so we'll see. Dan G and Paul both had relatively terrible races.
When we pulled into big bear thursday night I was pretty bummed by the masses of snow. I figured the course would be stupid, sloggy and short. I was happily surprised to find that the organizers did a great job of putting together a challenging (and rideable) course. There was plenty of mud, but it was all rideable. Cyclocross experience definitely was a plus. I saw some amazing crashes on the snowy parts of the downhill, but managed to stay upright myself.
I pretty much stank the place up. Even Scott Martin, who writes for Mountain Bike, kicked my ass. I hate getting beat by writers. It was pretty muddy and I'm pretty lazy, so I rode my old rigid MB1 instead of my sweet new supercaliber. That was a big mistake. I wrapped my chain around my bb, then after i got going again i just never really hit the groove. I ended up having to dig deep to outspring teammate Dan Sovereign, who's getting better every week. End results: Dan Garcia, 6th, expert 19-26. Me, 10th, expert 35-44. Dan Sovereign, 11th expert 35-44. Keith, off-the-back in sport.
Ah, at last things went well. This race really kicks ass. All the experts started together. I thought i got a crappy start, but chris ryalls managed to tow me right up to lead group without me doing a lick of work. Up the big climb Dan and 3-4 fast pro-expert types moved away. I was in the next group (well, 2 of us) with Dave Hinz. Happily, I was climbing well. All 3 times up the big climb I dropped whoever was with me. Dan finally bonked (the race took over 2 1/2 hrs) and had to settle for 2nd Pro-expert. I got 4th overall, 1st expert Vet (my first win of the season!). Keith kept plugging along and ended up beating Steve, but Steve whined about being sick. For $20 pre-reg we got to race on a cool course for a long time and we got ugly t-shirts. kick ass!