This past weekend was the sixth of ten Southeastern Regional
Championship (SERC) series races and third of six GA State Championship (GSC) series
mountain bike races. This is my seventh
year racing in these series, though I have never raced enough of the races to
contest the overall SERC series (8 of 10 races minimum). I’ve won the GSC series as a Cat 2 (Sport)
and placed second/third a few times as a Cat 1 (expert). This year I decided to
compete in both the SERC and GSC series.
Looking at different mtb series throughout the country, I think we are
pretty lucky in GA to have two great cross country mtb race series to do (as well
as the Chainbuster endurance series)—Terri and David Berger of Gone Riding put
them on and do a super job. Dauset was
the one race I won in the GSC series in 2011, so I hoped to repeat that in
2012. There was a time trial (TT) of
about 4.5 miles on Saturday, with GSC series points of 5,4,3,2, for first
through fourth (and 1 point for anyone that raced it). Since I am contesting the GSC series and
Dauset is close to home, I raced it.
After pre-riding the roughly 4.5 mile course, I decided I’d go hard, but
not crazy hard for the TT race—just not worth risking a big crash for a few
series points (first place in the regular XC race is 30 points by
comparison). I ended up 2nd
place, just one second behind Rick Pyle—good for four points.
I showed up Sunday
with enough time to pre-ride a tougher part of the course (called
Huff-and-Puff) a couple of times. The TT
on Saturday was on portions of the Sunday course (which measured about ten
miles each lap). While I wasn’t too worried
about my ability on Huff-and-Puff I did need to “dab” a couple of times, and
could see how if I was exhausted it could be a potential crash section. Nineteen racers lined up in 40+ expert class for
the three lap (plus a short “parade” lap) race.
The start was up a gravel road for a couple hundred yards and then into
fast downhill singletrack. Dauset is a
good course for passing, but I still wanted to get into the singletrack near
(or at!) the front—I’ve found in mtb racing that it is a very good idea to stay
with the leaders early if you want to finish well. I hit the singletrack in third position—I’m
not the best sprinter, but not bad. The
guy at the front was a bit slow to be leading the pack, and after I gently
suggested that, he graciously moved aside.
As my luck would have it, the guy in second place had a mis-shift and so
I was pretty quickly in front. I went as
hard as I could up hill on singletrack to the start/finish for the parade
lap. It looked as though only two guys
were close, and I had about 50 feet on them.
So, I continued to go hard and the gap seemed to stick—they would gain
on the tight/technical stuff and I would gain on the straighter stuff. I am continuing to improve my technical
riding, but it remains one of my weaker points.
After finishing the first full lap, only one guy (John Martin) was in
sight behind me, and he was a couple hundred feet back. Twenty minutes later I could still catch
glimpses of him, and we traded shouts to eachother for fun. I was passing a fair amount of 19+ and 30+
experts (and even a couple pros), but had no issues passing them—much better
situation than encountered in endurance racing.
My goal (besides winning the race!) was to keep my lap times as consistent
as possible and pass as many younger riders as possible. Hopefully this would keep me from getting
complacent—and it seemed to work. It was
getting pretty hot (and very humid), so it was great to have the local mtb club
(OMBA) hosting a water (drink) station, and my thanks go out to Tina and Ray
for handing out cups of water (and my buddy Monte for getting the stuff). With no energy/hydration problems and no
crashes, I had a near perfect race and came across the finish in first place
after 2 hrs 10 minutes, 2.5 minutes ahead of John Martin—still a long ways off
from the pro winner at 1 hr 59 minutes, but I’ll take it!
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