Windham race the world XC

[Smudger]

Spent the weekend at Windham watching the World Cup Downhill and mens XC (what a race that was) and helping out my friend who was racing her 1st WC XC race on sunday. With the opportunity to race the same course as the elites I signed up for Kenda race the world on Saturday. Although this would be my 2nd ever mountain bike race and 1st Cat2 I was coming into it with good form (the old Smudger is almost back) from my VT50 training and had a personal goal of getting on the podium. Pre-rode 2 laps an hour before the 5:30pm start. Course was basically a STEEP switch back climb up the ski mountain followed by a staggered descent where we traversed the open ski runs back and forth between varying degrees of technical single track including one long 40+ ft rock garden in the woods. A couple of wide open sweeping loose off camber turns brought you down to the finish. All very rideable when not racing. The trail conditions were incredibly dry and thick with dust in the hollows in the woods. Not something I had ever experienced. Bill Turner very aptly called it Moon Dust.

Lined up for the 3 lap race on the front row with inside line to hole shot although it was more of a hole hill as I expected it to be singled out before the 1st real turn. Wasn't concerned with getting the hole shot just wanted to be in the top 10 wheels going up the hill as there wasn't anything too technical to cause congestion and it was wide enough to pass on the trail between the switches. I took the 1st turn 6th wheel. 1 guy was pulling away in 1st but 2-5 were all there. I passed 2 by the 2nd and 3rd switches and then on the 1st of 2 small bits of single track on the climb the guy in front wipes out and I roll past him into 3rd and sitting on the wheel of 2nd with 1st maybe 30 yards up as we get onto the open fire road at the top of the climb before the descent. I push to pass 2nd so I can enter the downhill in front but he passes back. OK so follow him and recover on the down then. He's descending OK and I'm rolling fine then bang I go over the bars totally unexpectedly. Tuck and roll and am back up with my bike without loosing a place. It's just before a little climb in the woods so I run it like a CX run-up and remount and am back on the wheel of the guy in 2nd place trying to stem the adrenalin flow. As we go through the finish for the end of the 1st lap I reach down to grab a drink and realize my bottle had gone. Fortunately I had placed a bottle in the feed zone so I grabbed it as we went through . 2nd was flagging a bit on the climb as we started the 2nd lap so I passed and set my sights on catching the guy in 1st. We had been in traffic from the races in front of us since the middle of the 1st lap and it was a little difficult to pick him out but I was pretty sure he was 4 or 5 wheels up. Starting the descent for the 2nd time and I was riding smooth including the same line as Schurter was taking through the rock garden. The next section in the woods was super dusty and lumpy rooty with a sharp left at the bottom. The straighter you took it the less you had to turn at the end I wanted to take the right most line but a back marker was on it so I took the 2nd most right line and was about to pass when I went hard over the bars. Again totally unexpected. This one hurt a bit more and the bike did some bouncing as did I. Jumped up and everything was moving OK, bike seemed OK and I thought I was going to get back into the race again without loosing a place until I saw the front tire was totally flat. Grabbed my CO2 and re-inflated assuming the crash had just dislodged the beed from the rim while I swore at myself profusely for being an idiot and making this mistake (apologies to the family that were spectating and got the full benefit of my Scottish vocabulary). Tire seemed to be holding air tried to remount mid section, realized that was a bad idea, ran down and got back on the trail. A lot of wheels went past while this was going on but had no idea how many were in my race. Cratty and his daughter are in the next section of woods and I hear him say "Oh No the guy in front is in your race". Head is back in the game. I pass him at the feed zone going into the last lap. I pushed hard on the climb but my calfs were cramping. I still pass several people on the climb and eventually make it back onto a wheel I think I recognize from the start of the race half way through the descent. I'm now thinking about a sprint but he gaps me by 15 ft on the off cambers. I lock out my forks to give it one last effort but I don't have it. Finished 5th, same time as 4th and 2 min back of 1st.

Should be happy but I am disappointed about the mistakes. The moon dust was a totally new experience and I think it contributed to both off's due to lack of visibility. I just don't think I saw the feature that caused them to happen either due to dust on my glasses or feature buried under the dust.

With my crashes I was lapping in 18min for 3laps and was totally done at the end. The elites were lapping in 10+min for 7 laps!!!!!

[pace21]

Well done smudger. Such a bummer when crashes and mechanicals are the only thing between you and the podium. Good signs for VT50 though. Oh, and don't worry, that family couldn't make out anything you said with your adrenaline fueled, oxygen starved Scottish rant

[Bradford]

Intense racing Smudger - inspiring perseverance. Sounds like you're on form though - ready for the next one!

[JeremyC]

Kudos to Smudger on a tough course in hot and dry conditions. I was happy with my decision to watch vs. race. I got to see about 100 crashes in a technical DH section, great heckling territory.