Glocester Grind
Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:08 am
Well since all racing is good I will start with saying this was a good race. Weather was spectacular yesterday, cool and sunny, but the preceding day/night of rain made the course a mudpit (although I guess it always is). However, it is a mudpit full of tightly spaced rocks. This is a tough combination for racing. Sport riders did 3 laps of 4+ miles. The Sport Masters grouped with a few juniors and I think a few singlespeeders, maybe 14 total. Once again I did not battle for position in the first few hundred yards so when we hit the first mudhole I was already stuck behind flailing riders. This made me have to downshift quickly as riding basically came to a halt and I dropped my chain and it got stuck pretty good.
I lost a little time with this and then start riding again. Next I smack a small sharp rock and I hear the Stan's struggling to seal a puncture so I dismount again and play with my wheel to get the hole sealed and this works but since I lost quite a bit of air I had to pull a CO2 cartridge to reinflate. This is all in the first mile. After this I pretty much am soloing the rest of the race, I passed some and got passed by some. The elite riders lapping me made me realize how slow I really am. There were times where I tried to ride some of the muddy rock gardens but with limited success. Each lap I was probably off the bike about 8 times to scramble through the nastiness.
Also fell twice when hitting slick roots but with no real damage to me or my bike. Final results are not posted but early results had me at 6th place. After losing that time early in the race I hoped I could catch back up but I never really got to where I had hoped to be in this race. Going mostly solo I think made it harder to keep drilling it. It also is not a course that really lets you hammer away. Being a more technical course than my first two races I thought it would be to my advantage but it was not. My take away lesson is to fight for early position which starts at the lineup.
The venue was very cool, parking in the grass at a school across from a privately owned farm property which hosted the race. They had some live music, cheap burgers, and a good vibe. Would I race here again? I don't know - the event was low-key and friendly and it was a shorter drive than I thought it would be (just over an hour from Stow). But I do admit that my bike and I are not big fans of major mudfests.
I lost a little time with this and then start riding again. Next I smack a small sharp rock and I hear the Stan's struggling to seal a puncture so I dismount again and play with my wheel to get the hole sealed and this works but since I lost quite a bit of air I had to pull a CO2 cartridge to reinflate. This is all in the first mile. After this I pretty much am soloing the rest of the race, I passed some and got passed by some. The elite riders lapping me made me realize how slow I really am. There were times where I tried to ride some of the muddy rock gardens but with limited success. Each lap I was probably off the bike about 8 times to scramble through the nastiness.
Also fell twice when hitting slick roots but with no real damage to me or my bike. Final results are not posted but early results had me at 6th place. After losing that time early in the race I hoped I could catch back up but I never really got to where I had hoped to be in this race. Going mostly solo I think made it harder to keep drilling it. It also is not a course that really lets you hammer away. Being a more technical course than my first two races I thought it would be to my advantage but it was not. My take away lesson is to fight for early position which starts at the lineup.
The venue was very cool, parking in the grass at a school across from a privately owned farm property which hosted the race. They had some live music, cheap burgers, and a good vibe. Would I race here again? I don't know - the event was low-key and friendly and it was a shorter drive than I thought it would be (just over an hour from Stow). But I do admit that my bike and I are not big fans of major mudfests.