Iron Hill XC!

On Sunday June 5th was Iron Hill’s mountain bike race, another race in the MASS series. It was a good race and a fun and relatively fast course. I drove two and half hours out towards Newark, DE expecting a rainy day and wasn’t sure if any of my teammates were going or not. But I got out there and was happy to find Scottie and Dan already racing in the endurance race, and the weather was pleasant with some cloud cover to keep the heat away. I took the new rig with me, a 2010 KHS XC Team Alloy, which I had put some finishing touches on during the week and had only ridden two or three times prior, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The weather was looking good, it was nice to see some familiar faces on the course, and the new shiny bike was ready to go. So at 11am the race was off, 2 laps, 7 or so miles each, a field of 15 riders in my category, what more could one ask for. After a quick half mile pro-log we hit the main course and I have to say I enjoyed it. The course had a good mix; tight twisty single track, a couple rocks, a couple logs, a little climb, a little downhill, and some fun fast rolling hills. The first lap I wasn’t feeling strong for what ever reason, a bunch of riders had gotten away from me and my legs felt heavy and refused to work. At one point I thought to myself, why am I out here and almost wanted to say hell with it and give up. But that’s not my style and I pushed into the second lap and I started to feel a little better, the legs were getting looser and I was feeling more in my element. I was hoping to catch some riders but ended up battling with a couple riders around me, one specifically that I jockeyed with back and forth all the way until the finish where I eventually had put about 20-25 seconds on him. Through the race I got to started to get more comfortable with the new bike and was happy with it. The layout, the feel, everything seemed to working well for me and I couldn’t complain about the bike, only the rider riding it. So by the end of the race I was feeling good, had a nice little sprint finish with another out of category racer (we both figured why the hell not, good practice and the crowd enjoys it), but I wish I could have felt that good through more of the race. I think I need to analyze my pre-race routine to figure out how to warm up better or differently. As I ride more and my leg muscles start to develop and change I need to adjust how I prepare them, so now to figure out what works and what doesn’t so that next time I can start stronger. So in the end, 8th out of 15 riders, no major issues, liking the new rig, not it time to look ahead to the next race which I haven’t decided on.