One down...

So we had our first "official" race on the weekend... O'Cup #1 at Mansfield... a course that i have always enjoyed but is always tough to race on... there is nothing flat anywhere!!! As i said in my last post... it's always the time of year when you look around and see who's back, who's fit and discover very quickly if your winter program worked....

so... a few new faces... a few lean legs.... and i felt pretty good.... i didn't pre-ride so i wanted to take it a bit easy on the first lap and just sat in... once we started rolling we had a nice group of 5 working at the front... different people taking turns pulling and i felt really strong and smooth in the singletrack... "ok Barnes.... we're doing okay... just pick your time and ride at your pace".... "ok... here we go... nice pull... let's get past these girls.... uh oh..."... so as i'm passing some girls with the train behind me.... one of the girls snubs a root which causes me to dab... and the rider behind me runs into my dereilleur.... nothing intentional but it bends it a bit... and there goes some gear.... 2nd, 3rd and 4th all were skipping as soon as i really pushed on them, so it was "Let's Ride The Singletrack In A Really Big Gear" or "Let's Use The Bottom 2 Gears In The Middle Ring And Spin".... tough to go back and forth and i couldn't really ride like i wanted.... so i let it roll for another couple laps at the front and got it down to just Eric Jobin and I.... he led the last part of the last lap and i couldn't get around him at the top of the rough downhill right at the end.... i tried to sprint but had a hard time accelerating from the hairpin turn in a big gear... 2nd by less than 1sec....

but i was still quite happy with how i felt.... the winter was good to me and i loved how the bike handled.... MAN those things are nice..... i just think i need a few more hard efforts and i'll be good to go for O'Cup #2 at Albion Hills.... can't wait...