Letting it rip on the Downhills......

I had an interesting Race today. No, it wasn't a fierce battle for first place, at this moement I am not sure where I placed. I ended up chasing a younger guy today, The class was 19-34 years old, (usually I race 30-34) he started to loose me on the climbs, but he just didn'thave confidence on the downhills where i would catch him. It was a three lap race, after the first lap I decided that i would let him pull away on the climbs and catch him on all of the downhills. I would save my strength for the 2nd half of the final lap. The plan was working pretty well and I was able to keep him in check until we hit the first major downhill on the second lap. The lead racer from 34-44 yr olds caught up to me, unfortunately he was not a very good downhiller. He passed me and as we hit the down hill he was going much slower then I was capable of, which was inhibiting me from catching the guy in front of me. Just when it could not get any worse he lost it and crashed, i was able to stop in time but it led to a dismount and a loss in time. The guy in front of me was no longer in check, but I did not quit the chase. Generally speaking, when out of sight you are out of mind, it usually works to the leaders advantage, but today it was going to work for myself. I raced through the remainder of the 2nd lap, hitting the down hills very hard.

I began the Third Lap, and as we hit the first long climb I saw the guy in front of me cresting the peak. I locked out my front and rear shock, stood up and began to mash down on the pedals. If I wasn't going to catch him, I was at least going to turn the screws and make this guy hurt trying to shake me. We hit the next down hill, where I didn't quite catch him, but he was within reach. We started to hammer it out again. The trail opened up to a field that began to slope downward to a more technical dowhill... I put it in the big Ring and passed him. I started to put a gap on this guy when I discovered an arrow that was knocked down, i ended up missing a turn at the bottom of the hill. I lost my advantage, as he did not miss the turn and pulled ahead on the climb.

We started into the last climb of the race, which led to the last long semi-technical decent of the race. I locked out again stood up out of the saddle mashing down on the pedals. I could see him, and was slowly closing the gap. We both knew that if I peaked that hill before him, he was done.
It didn't happen, he got to the top about 15 seconds before me. As i peaked the hill I could see him slowly picking his way down the best line of the trail....I through it in the big ring and started bombing, I knew if i was going to beat this guy, I would have to pass him on the gnarly line. Of course i caught him on the most difficult part of the trail, I yelled "RIDER on Your Left" and slammed through a rock pile as though it did not exist.......now it was game on. No brakes and pedaling as fast as i could, it wasn't long before I was out of sight and rolling across the finish line.

No podium finish, but sometimes you don't need one to have a great race!