The wait was over Wednesday night. I have been anxiously awaiting the start of the Charlotte Summer Series this year. Such a fun series - cool people, great trails, and lots of fast bike racers!! I have been working a little harder lately - losing weight and getting my legs stronger. I tip the scales 11 pounds lighter then this time last year (191 this morning). So I was anxious to see where I stood in relation to last year. Seems I spent lots of time in the back of the pack last year just getting used to the fast pace.Some early smack talk was going down on Tuesday. Bart was giving me some ribbing on my last blog post about the upcoming race. Last year, about halfway thru the season I started catching him towards the end of races. I learned quickly that catching Bart and getting by him were two different things. He finished the rest of the races one spot in front of me. So it goes without saying that job #1 was beating Bart this year.
I got a good warmup and lined up in the front row to get a good start. Our group goes off and soon as we hit the first corner I get squeezed to the outside and elbows are flying. I settle into 3rd place and am happily surprised that the pace seems very reasonable. We maintain this pace for another couple minutes and their is a chain line of racers behind me. All of a sudden my chain falls off. Not good. I have to pull over and un-jam it and get it back on the chainring - 12 or more guys go flying by me. Big bummer. Seems my chain was giving me warnings that it was time to replace it, but I wasn't listening. I deal with a couple more derails of the chain and lots of gear skipping, but it's my own fault so I have to manage it best I can. The bad part now is that I'm behind a sea of guys in tight singletrack. I start making passes, most of them nice and called out, but I do remember making one risky one - sorry buddy. After passing 5 or 6 folks I see a group in front of me thru the woods. They might be 10 seconds up on me and Bart is leading them.
I keep picking people off and 3/4 of the way thru lap 1 I'm slowly creeping up on fellow racer Kevin who is riding right behind Bart. Kevin is pretty strong and I consider him a front of the pack guy so this givs me hope that I'm making some ground up again. At least I'm moving forward and not losing any spots! On a climb Kevin goes by Bart at the top and I ride Barts wheel on the following downhill. Next hill I pass Bart near the top. Even though I feel like I motor by him I know Bart well enough to figure he is either playing possum or saving some matches to come catch me later. I set my sights on Kevin now and really put the pedal down, but he's up on me by 10 seconds or so and standing on it as well. I battle to try and make ground on Kevin, but I've wasted to much energy getting by all the folks at the beginning of lap 1. He's slowly getting further away from me. I want to give up, but know that there are still plenty of pinners behind me including the crafty, slippery, trick up his sleeves Bart. Every once in a while I'd see the red and white bikesource jersey about 20 seconds back of me. I would later find out it was Wayne who was making a late charge. I keep up my pace and got to the line with nobody hunting me down.
When I finally cross the finish line I'm pretty happy to see a 1 hr 1 min. time on my computer. This was my personal goal and I thought it was a strech, but I pulled it off. Then I was told that I finished in 5th. Not bad considering. Lots of positives out of this one and some confidence going to the next one knowing I can hang up front and battle! I'm sure Bart is going to paint a target on my jersey now and really want to keep me behind him, but that's a big part of the fun of it.
So what did I do today? You guessed it, new chain slapped on the bike. Looking forward to Renaissance race next Wednesday night. I see some big battles this year with Kevin, John, Bart, Wayne, and Donald. Gonna be fun, stay tuned!
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