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Jeff Whittingham
This weekend's race held little "glory" for me, but was a good time and held a few lessons in racing - even one I had to look-up in the EFTA rulebook. Basically, never go to an open-bar wedding the night before a race - 'nough said.
1. Always take the time to stop and fix your bikes, release air from over-inflating tires, versus struggling-on with issues that impede one's progress on the track.
2. When falling from a bridge crossing for the third consecutive time, tuck.
3. The leading racer owns the track (from efta rulebook):
RULE 6.6 Lapped riders must yield to leaders. Leaders should verbalize the command “track” when overtaking another. It is the responsibility of the challenging rider to overtake safely. You must yield to the passing rider on the first command.
RULE 6.7 In the event two racers are vying for position, the leading racer does not have to yield his/her position to the challenger. However, a racer may not bodily interfere, with the intent to impede another racer’s progress. Traditional rules of racing apply; the leading racer owns the track.
Basically, I had the same guy on my tail in the singletrack all race, then I'd blow by him on the open hills. He was calling track behind me on stuff so narrow, I'd have to stop and get off the bike to let him pass, which I did a couple times early in the race. By the 3rd lap he was calling track as if I had to obey - which the above rules clearly illustrates that I do not. As we came-up the last rise to the finish, he pulled next to me and pushed me out of the way so he could finish ahead! He then started yelling at me that when a rider calls "track" you HAVE to move. Wrong answer Senior Poopy-Pants. I tried throwing-up on him, but just couldn't get it going fast enough, so I slapped him on the butt and thanked him for an enjoyable race. I then threw-up the previous evening's festivities.
Tom, thank you for the tire - and the moral support while I got it on the bike.
Tom Merrill
I meet with team who raced Novice before the race to
pick up my lights for the 24 Hrs of Glen. I had to
coordinate the exchange, so I missed the riders
meeting. Found out it was 3 laps not 4 laps because
the Novice race started late. I asked Roz how many
times she went through the gravity cavity, 3 times is
what I thought she said. So 3 times thru the Gravity
Cavity equals 2 laps, so Sport.s 3 laps is 4 time thru
the Gravity Cavity. Tim, Clyde-Rob, Doug, and Roz
warned me the rain made some of roots and some bridges
were very slick so I made a tire pressure adjustment,
thanks Team White Mice.
Was lined up on left side of the second row, when a
latter comer came up looking for the Veterans start.
Should have said something to the guy, but where I
have been finishing it didn.t matter. But anyway, I
had to let him in or run into him and get taken down.
So, I got a bad start about 15-20 deep going into the
first corner. They mixed the Vets and the Masters
together.
The Gravity Cavity was tamed by the rain. The loose
sand firmed up with the added moisture. I kept
bogeying the very end of the cavity with the 90 degree
turn, I wasn.t used to carrying that much speed. I
thought I was going to over shoot the corner, but over
corrected or was in the wrong gear. I ran 3 times
this week getting ready for a 5K run at work. It paid
off, as I sprinted up the hard pack hill going out of
the Gravity Cavity 3 times. One time I was running so
fast, the guy in front of me just pulled over and let
me by. I normally run once a week at a recovery pace,
now on I'm going to add some intervals to the runs.
The big climb was a good grinding hill. The big
questions was how hard to push on each lap. The first
2 laps, I started off in the 1st and shifted to 2nd
while in the middle ring. The 3rd lap, (next to last
lap in my mind) I felt good so I pushed the pace
climbing in 1st, 2nd,3rd, and 4th Cogs. This was good
practice for the last lap.
The down hill technical sections were fun and
frustrating. Some sections were fast and good grip
even over the roots, but other sections the roots were
slippery as hell. Took a couple of good falls. Saw
some even better falls off the bridges.
During the 3rd lap, I picked up the pace since the
race was half over and I felt good. I concentrated on
draining the Camelback with Sustained Energy and
sucking down the Cliff Shots. It takes approxiamately
20 minutes for sugar to go from your mouth to your
muscles. I did notice everyone was picking up the
pace on this next to last lap. Coming out of the
last technical section, I bogeyed the last rooty
section and had to run. The guys behind me groaned,
but I could tell by the growing silence they didn.t
expect me to tear up that little hill running. (Damn,
I definitely going to add fast running intervals to my
weekly training) I finished it off with a pretty
good cyclo-cross mount and settled into a high end
cardio pace w/ high cadence. I was expecting the some
of the pack to go by me but, it was quiet for long
time. Then some people came by very fast, I thought
they must be the lapping traffic.
I approached the Gravity Cavity for the 4th time. My
plan was to go to slower cadence and put more force in
the pedal, I was ready for a really hard painful 4th
time up the big hill. As I passed the Finish line, I
course worker waived me to finish shoot. I told her
had gone thru Gavity Cavity only 3 times. She said
your done. I finished topped off with fuel and no
lactic acid in my legs. I felt cheated; damn I don.t
feel tired. Now it hit me, that is why everyone else
really picked up the pace on lap 3. It was the last
lap. Oh well. I normally don.t do squats on the
Monday after a race, but this time I did.
The timing was all screwed up and very late. I never
saw the Sport results. But using the number of women
you passed metric, it was a middle of the road
performance, 2 .3 Women passed me. By the time I
wrote this, the results were posted, I achieved a
milestone for racing Sport class. I finally finished
out of the bottom quarter of the field, 21st out of 28
(by only 1 position, but I'll take it.
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