The Frostbike - déja vu

I was feeling really good heading into the race yesterday after an amazing pre-ride on Tuesday and a very similar one Saturday. We did a lap and a bit with the big frenchman in the picture below who ended up taking second overall! I felt I was riding strong and started to find some good rhythm in the trails, top that off with am amazing bike tune-up by none other than Mr. Derek McCaulay himself and I was good to go.

Got to the venue just after 9am to find that all the prime parking spots were already taken, so I found a nice hidden spot right by my dumpster friend. Got registered and was surprised that the guys from the SHCC had reserved my number for me, big thanks. Did the usual pre-race shoot the shit, get kitted, complain about a thing or two like the cold and eventually get spinning. We headed out onto the course for a lap and my rear tire was slowly losing pressure, I topped it up and made it back to the start/finish with a little less pressure again. You'd think I would do something smart like throw a tube in there or swap wheels, but no! That's just not how I roll. Well, I didn't roll far.

The start was pretty relaxed, settled in behind Spak with JC leading the train. He started pulling away with De Cal right on his wheel so I was looking for a spot to get around Spak. First attempt was unsuccessful because my chain jammed, I got around him on some pavement and hammered into some awesome singletrack with JC in sight. I rode his wheel for a bit then when things opened up again I hammered and didn't look back until the next set of singletrack. I had a decent gap but the one between De Cal and myself was even bigger. Next thing I knew I was almost riding on my rim, huge thanks to teammate Alex for stopping to give me a CO2 despite a hard chassing JC. The tire filled well then emptied even better before the end of the next doubletrack. The walk back was long, boring and shameful but it is what it is.

I got back to the truck, threw a tube in and was destined to hammer out an awesome lap to try and get a spot on the podium. I started off strong and motivated only to find myself on some crazy slick trails and I knew it would take one hell of a ride to pull off a good time on a course like that. I guess you can say I rode like a knob, a knob on a mission though. I wanted nothing but to hammer my brains out and found myself down hard a few times, again, you'd think I'd learn and slow down, ride smooth, not! In the end I missed the age cat. podium by 10s. On a positive note I did have the fastest second lap time, but that, of course, doesn't mean squat.

Huge congrats to team L!B for 2 wins and a third (+ age cat. win), they killed it. JC is a machine, old news, but a 2nd overall is a great way to start a season to be raced in expert. AJ posted a crazy fast time despite riding 3 times since November!

Of course, big thanks to the SHCC for all their hard work to get this race going. It was a great time, already looking forward to next year.