Dan Action

Beaten at Beacon November 12, 2008

Well, let me start with saying that I am glad to have the first, or any, sloppy race under the belt and over with.

That said, I got a lousy start being over geared and not having a ton of traction on the wet, uphill, paved climb. But whatever, as long as the group can stay together, it’s not too big of a deal. Going into the soft, deep sand, my front wheel dug in good. Others did as well and I got a bit tangled with some other riders. I  got out of the sand and the bike felt really heavy and hard to pedal for some reason or another. I let it go and chalked it up to being sandy and muddy and what not until the top of a dirt climb where never mind it being hard to pedal, I couldn’t even coast. Here I took my mind off of where I was in the race and put a little attention on the bike. My front wheel was pressed against the fork and brake. That would definitely keep the speed down. It was here that I pulled off and dismounted to take care of the mechanical issue. It was here that I saw myself going back in the places to last. Dead last.

With the problem fixed, I decided that to give up was lame. I set off to catch whoever I could and use the race to make myself ride the course better. I can always use a muddy and wet race course to work on bringing my riding skills up a notch. And while working on cornering better, running faster, and dropping the gears whenever the course would allow a nice speed surge, I found myself catching rider after rider and eventually moving myself back to 17th place. Sure I was still a bit disappointed, but I was satisfied that I rode the course well.  And let me tell you the course was worth riding. It was so fun and well laid out.  My sense of direction was completely boggled the entire race what with all the twists and turns. Kudos to the promoters and designers. I can easily see why this is a race that atracts so many folks to travel.

Fair Hill, Fair Effort November 5, 2008