Racing out in Bennington, VT. More technical course. Started heading up a hill on a paved section, then a bit of grassy turns with a few sidehills and off camber sections. It has been really dry, so it was not at all muddy. Downhill, over a huge drainage swale, turn then up a run up w/ stairs. Down a short hill, then across the flats and into the barriers. You were carrying a ton of speed heading into the barriers, and had to really hit the brakes hard before dismounting. A few sidehills with a bunch of snakey 180 degree turns, then through a short muddy singletrack section into the steep runup, one last 180 then the start/finish. Fun course. Had to watch it a bit on the sidehills, but not super technical.
Smaller field. 37 riders in the cat4 masters. No worries about staging, just jump in wherever. Took up off the hill. I passed a few riders, and was riding well. Kept moving up a few places each lap. 4 laps. Looking at my heart rate data after the fact, it looks like I may have been slowing down a bit on the last lap? There were a few riders I was trying to catch at the end, and I got closer, but ran out of course. The end had the sidehills w/ 180s, then the singletrack section ( which was giving me fits), followed by a run up. Hard to gain ground there. I'm better at punching it down a straightaway, or taking some corners faster to move tup.
Had an hour and a half to rest, then had the Cat 3/4 race coming up. I was wiped out, and knew this would be tough. Tim passed by me just past the start, said hey and tried to hang on. Lost a lot of ground early, and just lost a place or two each lap. After one lap, the announcer said "5 to go". Not what I wanted to hear. That would be almost an hour of racing for me. It is a bit uncouth, but I was looking forward to getting lapped so that my misery would be over sooner. That happened after 4 laps. On the last lap, I was duelling it out with one rider, not realizing we were the last two out there. He dropped his chain, and I rode past, asking if he was OK He got it back on, then quickly caught up and passed. I just wanted to stay on his wheel, and followed that all the way to the end. Finished dead last, but I really crack on the second race of a double.
After the race, caught up with Tim and John, it was good to see them. Rode by the guy I was duelling with, and congratulated him. Then paced things up and headed home.
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