The New Fork and the First Race

Recently I have been getting used to the new bike; swapping stems, changing positions, playing with the suspension, tires, there are lots of variables. I also have a new fork, and guess what, its white instead of the standard issue red. I had some problems with the previous fork and when I got it warrantied I got a color choice, so I decided it would be cool to have a more custom bike, and white does look nice.


So as if trying to figure out the new bike was not enough, I had my first mountain bike race this past Saturday. The race was held on the UMASSS campus by the team here, so I got to be a part of setting, running, and also racing in the event. I must say, for the a small patch of woods and some field the course was awesome, and the race itself went off smoothly, so thanks for all that helped, participated, and spectated. For my race I was a little nervous as it was the first race of the year, and I am still getting bike figured out, oh yeah, and it had to rain, making much of the trail section wet and slippery.

The race started off great, I got the hole shot and was the first one into the woods. Then I started to slow down, and people started to come around me... I guess my mind remembers my fitness last fall, but my body does not. Either way, I rode 6 laps with 2300 ft of steep climbing and came across the line in 7th place out of 10 starters. Not a great result, but I got to race against three of my collegiate friends from the fall (Tom, Chris, and Sully) and some other pretty fast guys. I felt ok throughout the race, it seems that my base miles are paying off as my laps times were almost identical throughout the race. However I am now starting periods of higher training intensity, so I am hoping that in the next few months I will see those lap times go down, and my placement go higher.



Also congratulations to my good buddy Sean who took the victory in the Mens Cat II field, way to go!