Allison, you were not the only one held up by slow sport guys. ...... A lot shoulder banging going on. All hell broke loose on the first steep hill.......
I raced Sport class 45-49 so I had a front row seat for this. This was my first national XC race, and first time racing XC at Fontana, so I was not sure what to expect.
My first impression standing in the line up was that some people were very serious , and I could feel the competitive vibe. At the same time, some people were joking around and getting ready to have some fun, which was cool too. I made small talk with my neighbors and prepared for take off.
I made a couple of mistakes, #1 was not lining up front in my group. I had pre-rode the course and knew I wanted to be up front going up that first small hill or I might get stuck in a pack. Well, I left to warm up and when I got back there was no way to get back to my original position, my mistake. Sure enough when I got to that first hill there was a log jam. I got off my bike and ran around some people. The next stretch was rough, tires rubbing, handlebars hitting, wow! I kept up a good pace though and started picking off some people on the first climb.
Bombed the down and unknowingly made mistake #2, I was using big ring up front and 6 or 7 back. Sounds OK, but my chain was too loose and rattled into a funky position, not tracking the gears properly. It sounded funny, but I thought it got dirty or something. I was climbing strong and making some ground on the second up when I shifted down and heard the fingernail on chalkboard type sound of my chain falling between my spokes and 1st gear. Aaaargh!! I flip the bike over and it is stuck good. I remove my rear wheel to get it unstuck, put it back together and go. But I never totally recover from this. Yep, this is racing all right!!
from there it was pretty smooth sailing, especially the 2nd lap. The field had split up a bit so it wasn't as intense. Some people were slow on the downs but I would encourage them with a 'lets rip this thing', and I probably slowed down a person or two myself, but that's racing. Everybody has different strengths. You have to pick some passing spots in the pre-ride.
I came in 6th in my class. This was a pretty tough sport class, so I am happy with that. I checked the expert class and I would have been racing against Johny O' Mara (that can't turn out good!)
I raced Super-D too, which is another story, but felt like I nailed it as hard as I could have possibly done, so really happy with that, came in 7th.
nationals are tough!!
