DClog

When the Smoke Clears

I went to the 4th race in the GSC mountain bike series in Jackson on Sunday morning. The smoke from the fires in south Georgia was so thick that the visibility was limited and the smell was awful. I'm still smelling/tasting the smoke in my lungs and sinuses this morning.

The Dauset trail was all new to me and the first 15 minutes or so of big-ring stuff was really fast, but my disproportionate power-to-skill ratio was revealed in the more technical and rocky section. Slammed the rear tire on a rock and it went flat a minute or two later so I had to pull over and fix it. The guys riding the tubeless tires don't have to deal with pinch-flats - my MTB is a couple generations behind the current state of technology.

The darn C02 nozzle/adapter malfunctioned but I was also carrying a mini-pump, eventually got rolling again and rode behind a strong young guy that did an awesome job of pacing me and blazing through the crowd (thanks dude!). The slightly under-inflated rear tire (darn mini-pump) pinch-flatted again and with no more spare tubes, that was the end of my race. I ended up walking and pushing my bike for several miles to get out of the woods.

From a dominating start at the front of the pack, to the back, chasing hard, to a long walk out of the woods. Not exactly the way I had hoped things would go but good exercise I suppose.

The "Grand Master 50+" line up at the start.

Posted by dancoy at May 28, 2007 11:43 AM