Had an absolute blast yesterday at Falling Creek Park in Bedford. It was the first event in the Bedford County Mountainbike Championship Series. The morning was a 6.8 mile time trial where the goal is to get through the course as quickly as you can. I was the only Sport Chicky to show up, so I won before I ever started. I decided to ride as quickly as I could to see if I could beat any of the men. Might as well not be last. =) The course itself was challenging at times. I found myself walking a few of the hills (gotta work on that). The trails were awesome. Mostly dry, a few slick spots but very rideable. It was odd as the course layout took me backwards on the trails that I've ridden or run on. During my ride I saw a skunk, two deer and a snake. I told Kenny afterwards that that is the advantage of being slow. =) I managed to finish in 53:02, which was good enough to beat 3 other people. =)
 |
| Borrowed from Ron G (fastest overall/expert). Also pictured Doug Falls and Todd Gilley (1st Clydesdale) |
The second event was a dual-slalom race where I raced head to head against my friend Kelly Hazelgrove from Lynchburg. The object here was the ride downhill through a designed course with bermed turns, box jumps, rollers and drops. You are timed on the runs. After the first run, you switch lanes and do it again. I had never done something like this in my life, so I did one practice run which quickly reminded me how much I like riding downhill. The deceptive part is that you have to pedal hard between the obstacles and you wind up out of breath at the bottom.
 |
| Photo by Chris Overstreet |
|
First the first trip down vs Kelly I was in the Blue Lane. We started off on a trailer and had to go off down these ramps that weren't that wide. Once I got over the freakout factor and got clipped in Kelly was already ahead of me. I got rolling as quickly as I could and nearly caught her at the bottom. For the second lap I was in the red lane which I had ridden before the race. There is a section of 4 "rollers" which I totally missed on my practice run; same thing happened during my 2nd race. I came out of the bermed turn was was too wide to get back to them so I went between the white line and obstacle. As I understood the rules before the race, this would be ok. "If you can't get to something, don't do it" Well I didn't think that I could get back over to them and keep a safe line during the race. Eh whatever. It was funny because Kelly and I were close together at the top after the first turn, I heard her slip/slide so I dropped a few more gears to accelerate and actually beat her to the bottom. I was happy with that. Kelly is a super strong racer and does crazy downhill stuff so I had to smile all the while wondering if I'd get DQd for missing the stupid bumps. Eh whatever! The results are posted and show her winning by 0.3 seconds. HAHAHA. I want to go back and ride that stuff some more! It's fun!!!
So I guess the Bedford County Mountainbike Championship is off to a good start. I have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to get ready for the Fat Tire Frenzy XC race on June 11. The catch there is I will be out of town until the 10th. I will be doing a few road rides while on vacation so hopefully between now and the 5th when I leave to go out of town I can get some MTB miles in!
It's all about having fun, and I'm having a blast.
No comments:
Post a Comment