Yet another weekend of racing and next up was the Rim Nordic race which was also the 7th race in the Socal State Series. Going into this race with a very small point margin for 1st overall, I knew I had to have a good result and try to finish ahead of Barbee. As the season draws to an end, Barbee has become a real tough competitor and has greatly improved his fitness. Props to Mikey B for getting back in some serious shape.
I'm just going to get into it. After I lined up on the starting line I noticed the lack of racers in my category. I think there was only a total of 6, but I only saw 4 on the starting line. I think the orgainizers messed up with placing the 30-34 on the grid. We were starting ahead of the younger guys? Oh well, this actually turned out to be a good thing since the organizers decided to have us start with the SS guys. This actually allowed us geared guys to get out ahead of everyone and have a clear path for most of the way. The race started and I set out for a fast pace taking the lead. I was surprised that no decided to follow and before I knew it, I had a good 20 second or so lead on Barbee. However, this wasn't to last and before I knew it, Barbee closed the gap very quickly on the first set of climbs. He's a really strong climber. I thought I was pretty good, but apparently I need to work on that. Barbee was right on my tail with really no where to go around since we were on singletrack. I was able to slow down the pace a bit, but then I had a problem with my drivetrain. A pretty significant sized stick got caught between my chainrings and my chain stay. I couldn't shift my gears so I had to dismount and let Barbee by. He was encouraging me to get on it, but didn't realize the massive stick stuck in my drivetrain. I then spent about a minute wrestling trying to remove that stupid stick. I ended up breaking the stick 3 times and with each break making it harder to remove. I finally got it free and mounted back up to finish attacking the climb before the fireroad. I knew at this point that Barbee would be gone and I lost some motivation to keep pushing. It was pretty warm out and I sure didn't feel like I had the strength.
The 1st place SS guy caught up to me and I eventually let him by since I couldn't match his pace exactly. We would trade back and forth for most of the race. He would let me by on the singletrack descents. I approached the 1st singletrack descent and caught up the SS guy pretty quickly. I mentioned to pass and he kindly pulled aside except I was no longer behind him since I ran wide on one of the sandy turns and bailed from my bike before really crashing. I guess it was a semi crash since I didn't really fall or hurt myself, I just ended up dismounting while moving. I mounted back up and went on my way and eventually got around the SS guy. As I was near the end of the 1st lap, I rounded a corner and I see Barbee mounting his bike and started pedaling. I asked him what happened and he said his rear tire has a slow leak and he had to air it up 3 times now. What a bummer for Barbee especially during an important race. I rode with for a little bit as he pulled away on the smaller climbs before the Start/Finish line.
On the 2nd lap, I managed to catch up to Barbee on the 1st climb as he pulled over to air up his tire again. Being the true sportsman that I am...lol...I gave him my Big Air CO2. He really did appreciate it and I know he would have done the same in return if the situation was reversed. Again, he pulled away on the small climb before the 1st little section of singletrack. I did manage to pull up to his wheel on that singletrack, but I eventually went by when Barbee pulled over at the switchback close to start. That would be the last time I see him until after the race.
For the rest of the race, I tried to keep my pace high. I was definitely fatigued, but as long as I could hold onto first, that is all that would matter. My 2nd lap was much slower, but I did cross the line first with DJ coming in second 1 minute behind and Barbee finishing 3rd a few more minutes behind. This win really did help give me an advantage for the overall points leader. It was unfortunate that Barbee dealt with tire issues for most of the race. He finally did end up putting a tube in his tire. His tire wasn't in the best of shape to begin the race as I found out afterwards. He was dissapointed, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's all apart of racing.
Of course I was happy to win the race, but I wasn't overly excited about my performance. If it wasn't for Barbee's flat, I would not have been able to keep his pace. He would have smoked me for sure. He is a better climber and I guess it does help he has a cabin at elevation. I'm not a big fan of racing at elevation. I haven't felt good at any mountain races. Stay tuned for the Socal State Finale in my next post.
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