Race Report Oth #5 6/21/11 (merged threads)

Hey everyone - all 256 photos are up. I was misinformed on the route for the kids race so only a few kids shots - sorry. Enjoy! http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/17685821_6q8427#1349064939_r6JFNKB

 

Great race last night. First time this year and last it seems like it was actually warm out there during the race.

A big shout out to the S3 guy riding in the lead group that just had to get by me on the backside climb. As I was riding a foot away from another rider on my right, he pushed right in between us without a word and nearly pushed me over. Note to him, I am not that competitive, so if you let me know you need to pass, I will move over for you.

Aside from that issue, I had a great ride. Felt good - wish I could have kept up with Dan at the end, but just didn't have the legs.

 

Thanks Kimmi!

I had a ton of fun for my first OTH. During my first lap I was thinking OTH is nuts! Who would come back each week for this painfest! The second and third lap I finally settled in and started to really enjoy the whole event.

It was a pleasure to finally meet the people behind the STR usernames. Dino, you rock! Thanks to Dino and everyone for cheering the riders along the course. Great to finally meet you Greg.

I'm actually looking forward to next week even though the memories of the painfest haven't faded yet.

 

Hit a Bump at OTH...Ouch!

Hi fellow racers. I'm home for the day licking my wounds after eating gravel last night. Ya, I was mad, but not so much at the fall, I was mad cause I couldn't cross the finish line...I was so close...it seemed so senseless to crash when the road was so open!!

I'm new to racing (got into mtb 9 months ago) and I was working really hard to shave off a few seconds, standing up and grinding on what I thought was a completely empty home stretch bout 50' from the finish line, when BAM! I wasn't just sideswiped, felt like a full length side slam. No time to correct, I was flying then skidding. The feeling of my skin being ripped off by the hot asphalt was GROSE!! Got rashed from my knee to mid-cheek, including under my armpit and rib cage (weird!!).

My elbow was deeply gashed and touching it to the asphalt burned like fire so I tried to keep it up even tho they wanted me to lay flat (that's why I was laying weird). My shoulder hurt to move, but didn't feel broken. Nothing felt broken (thankfully I eat an embarrassing amount of yogurt and cottage cheese!!! haha) but the road rash was burning in the hot sun. After the EMT cleaned me up and did an exam, she released me and told to go get stitches, but being from a family of 8, I came home and butterflied it shut instead

Thanks to my biker bud, Eric, for driving me home and helping me get comfy...you be a good friend :clap:

Ya, I hurt today. But, ya, I will be back on the trails as soon as I can. All we can do is ride smart and hope the other guy is riding smart.

To the guy who hit me, I totally accept your apologies...I know you didn't intend for this to happen. I'm gonna be ok, I'm gonna consider my downtime a blessing... "forced leisure."

Hopefully we can ALL learn from this... and maybe just maybe, racers will have more consideration for the racers around them and there will be one less accident at OTH. That would make it all worthwhile.

Gotta go ice my knee, thigh, ribs, elbow, shoulder, chin and cheek...could be worse...at least it's all on one side! haha

See you at week #6, I'll probably be wear street clothes this week! :wave:

Life is sooooo good!

 

Great race Marlan! It took me two laps to finally catch up with you. You were about 50 yards away for what seemed like forever! There were four of us in S2 all within 30 seconds racing for the finish. That kick for the line when you have other people in your class close by is always a thrill!

 

Ok, iced up and needed to add...

JOHN, DAVID, MATT...YOU GUYS ROCK! Thanks so much for taking care of me when I went down. I swear, it seemed like the second I stopped sliding a dude was there to help (who was that masked man??). And kudos to the EMT and blond rider who also helped. Ya, I heard you two whispering about how amped I was when I said I didn't feel anything as you debrided my bloody body, haha.

Thanks again to EVERYONE who helped me out...I know there were more than I saw...and you are all appreciated.

I'm looking forward to bringing a beach chair to #6, sipping beer, listening to the music and keeping my heart rate under 180! I vote for that 80s music again!!! haha

 

Dino now has some competition...Mikey from Fullerton Bikes was quite the motivator last night (you can hear him yell half a course away)!

Congratulations to Laurence (Skirt_Count455) on his win! It was cool to see him putting his newly found race craft strategy to work. As the B1 leader passed me, Laurence was DIRECTLY behind him (sucking his wheel), sitting up smiling at me with his index finger over his mouth going ssssssshhhhhhhuuuuuu. Then I find out after the race he won, and I believe if Manny wouldn't have flatted...he would have been right there with him. Another friend of mine finished 4th in B1, nice job Jeff Laymon!

Hotchkiss!!!!! Way to go! you're getting closer to S2 every week. I can't wait to hear what you bring Dino to play next week!

JSD...sorry to hear, and see that you got the worst end of your race last night...heal up, there's a top 3 finish in you this year, that's for sure!

E-Man...Nice to see that you made a winner! Tommy seems like a cool kid, maybe you can learn something from him! (maybe he can teach me something about racing a bicycle!)

Healing vibes, wishes, and prayers go out to all that got hurt. Heal up quick and get back out there (sometimes fun hurts)

 

HAHAHA Brownie I was only in Granny gear! wait till next week.. I'm thinking an over and under up top and have misters, disco ball and strobe light!

 

couldn't make it again this week. congrats to all who raced and healing vibes to the peeps who left on the DL

mos def bring the Sh!t and the Sh!tty

the shit ...make u ride fast! :bang:
Firestarter
Nookie
Bawitaba
baby got back
higher ground

The sh!tty ...make u ride faster to try to get outta earshot
MMMBop
Rico Suave
mambo #5
Livin' La Vida Loca
i'm too sexy
wannabe

caveat - think all the above was from the 90's but candidly i spent most of the decade in an alcohol induced coma so its all a blur

and if you need any ideas going forward i vote for cover songs. some serious cool remakes of songs that rawwwwwwwwwwk to get your spin on!

 

Worried bout Downed Rider

Hey, I'm starting to worry about the kid who had asphalt for dinner with me last night.

Does anyone know if he's ok? The way our bikes hooked up his right leg could have been totally exposed to a mad raking on that gnarly "stuff"...that would not be good! When I saw him, he seemed ok but there were so many people around I couldn't see him full length. At the very least he's gotta be sore...I feel so bad not asking him last night...ugh! :?:

I'm gonna worry til I hear he's ok....

 

With the number of STR's racing and the OTH guys keeping up with the threads, word should filter down through the thread pretty quickly...I'm actually surprised it hasn't filtered down yet.

As for the # of crashes, some of it is people learning to race, and that finishing with a high place is about when to go fast and when to go slow. The course isn't exactly tacky through some of the turns either, so even if you're used to the local trails, the different trail/road textures could cause you to go from asphalt to a little bit of gravel on top.

And there's always a mix of rider abilities in all races, even the US Cup events where each level would race separately.

And with anybody healing up, scrub the you-know-what out of the cut/bruises/scrapes to make sure the pebbles get out of there. I had my left elbow scab come loose last night only 10 days after going over the top of a car hood @ Ride Around the Bear...upon further review, a pebble had gotten lodged under the skin and had just worked its way out. Now there's a nice hole in the elbow that has to heal up all over again...and I used a friggin' scotchbrite sponge to try to get everything out. The other stuff, it just takes time to heal...but if you can, riding is the best medicine.

 

That's awesome! I'm sure that'll be just one of the many great proud papa moments. :clap:

Now get him to the Bellflower BMX track on Saturday. :bang:
http://www.socaltrailriders.org/for...ders-family-bmx-night-saturday-june-25th.html

 

real nice work! the lighting was perfect

 

It's ridiculous how many incidents there were this past race. Unbelievable!

 

My wife was the "blonde rider" who helped you out MtbBabe. She was glad to hear you are doing as well as you are considering how bad of a crash it was. Heal quickly and like everyone else on here we look forward to seeing you back on the bike ASAP.

 

Hey Everyone...my pictures will be up soon. There are about 526 of them. Sorry I feel asleep in front of my computer last night and didn't get a chance to upload them. They are uploading now and will post a link when done.

 

Pictures are up!

Here are my pictures. Tried to shoot everyone racing this time. Enjoy

http://web.me.com/mcgong/web_pics/OTH5/index.html

 

awesome bud, great job on the pics!

 

Love the pictures..they look great. Thanks

 

Thanks man !