Raced Brass Monkeys today.
Last night was touch and go if I was going to make it. After first having to change a rear mech cable (to be able to get slick shifting with the clutch mech engaged- otherwise I had really bad chain suck the other day with it disengaged ), I then remembered the headset was a little loose.
I went to undo the top cap and the bolt sheared off
In trying to drill it, I also pushed the star nut in too far.
Luckily Weeksy tracked one down and a 10pm trip up the road meant I was able to go to the ball this morning after all.
The course was a fun but hilly 6 mile lap. I say fun…. One bit was fun
I really don’t think it’s possible to be a good, heavy XC rider. The penalty for climbs and re-accelerating is just too great. Everything seemed to take me more effort for less momentum which made the whole event insanely frustrating. Only for a brief few moments did I get in any kind of flow state.
Running the camelbak didn’t help. I’ll definitely do bottles if I go to rd2.
Tyre pressure was 15psi and they generally worked fine. I did have a couple of hairy moments on roots but I’m not convinced any tyre would have gripped them much better than the Ron’s.
I went over the bars on lap one on a log-drop. People seemed to be making a meal of it in the distance so I tried going left- where it wasn’t rollable
The lack of momentum and high saddle meant I stopped dead and toppled over.
No harm done thankfully.
My strongest technical element today was climbing. I was determined not to walk and rode some real steep muddy climbs every lap. Stuff lots were walking.
When I crashed, my number plate came loose and ultimately fell off! That meant a -2min stop at the timing booth finding out my number.
So later, when I finished and they told me my 7th lap didn’t count because I was 20seconds late, I was pretty gutted about that
Fitness wise I felt great. Pacing was shit but it would take an awful lot of willpower to do your eventual average power from the start.
Watts are rubbish for measuring MTBing but still, power seemed to fade from 235 on lap one right down to 190 by the last lap.
However- that wasn’t actually ’decoupling’ as such but more because once the shorter races end and the trails go quiet, it’s hard to be as motivated. Real decoupling was only 7%.
Fuelling was 2.1l of sugar water in the camelbak but I didn’t drink enough of it to warrant the weight. Two large bottles would have been ample.
I finished 9th but only 13 started my age cat. I’d have been 30/40 in the Vets (next year!!)- they started with us so that’s a fair comparison.
All in all it was okay. MTBing was definitely funner at -18lbs back in the day. But I did have some brief moments of satisfaction.
Watching the good amateurs (obvs the sponsored riders are another level again) breeze past me and carry momentum through a series of rollers or roots that seemed to leave me grinding to a halt and having to put in multiple accelerations was frustrating enough that I’m not mega excited about doing more unless I do have a good couple of months on the diet.
The only thing wrong with my old bike was the fact the seat post is seized in again
An inch lower would have still been pedalable but way more confidence inspiring.
