The 2013 MTB race season is officially underway. Sunday, March 25th was opening weekend, and Burlingame State Park in RI was filled with early season racers eager to get out on some snow-free trails. It's been a rough winter here in New England.
Here's how the day went for some of our racers...
Tracy:
Racing all starts in the preparation right? So I planned to do it right for the KOB TT. I decided it would be a good idea to go to the time trial after having several days of riding on tired legs. Then, just to make sure I was in top form, I drank a few beers the night before. Well this plan did not go so well; lesson learned- next time I will drink more beer. Just kidding!! I plan to do it the correct way next time, especially since it will be a 20 mile race, YIKES- hope I am ready for that. Well, just as anticipated my legs had no power and hurt the entire time trial. Even though my legs and lungs were screaming I had a blast, it was just great to be back at it. I was not impressed or disappointed in my time; I just know I have a lot of work to do. Looking forward to a great racing season with a bunch of great people
Considering all the snow and slop that Mother Nature has dished out this March, there was really nothing to complain about. We got in some good pre-rides in the week beforehand, and the course was in very reasonable shape on race day. I can point to two significant changes for me this year: I'm running front suspension for the first time in three seasons, and I have been neglecting my core workouts. I've only got 3-4 rides on the new fork, a Rockshox SID RCT3, but I've got it dialed-in pretty well, and I am really enjoying the improved handling. The scenery doesn't go all blurry like it used to, and I can actually steer and brake at speed. Another factor was the course itself. Relatively dry, but distinctly wetter than last year, which created some traction issues in the rooty and rocky "ledges" tech section. I rode it out clean last year; this year, not so much. The rest of the course was more or less the same as last year; a couple of new bridges to speed up the wet, rocky tech sections near the end, with some newly downed trees to slow down other sections. Race day felt much colder this year, and I blame the cold air on the sharp pains in my lungs. So why was I four minutes slower than last year? Maybe a minute to the wet roots, another minute to the lungs, and two minutes to my lower back, which blew up early and screamed at me the whole rest of the race. Props to the race organizers for introducing a state-of-the-art timing system, and a big thanks to all the volunteers that make the day run smoothly. KOBTT remains one of the best events on the race calendar!
Liz Bove came out with a strong start to the season finishing fifth for the expert women and improving her last year's time. Meanwhile, Liz Allen improved her time over last year by a small amount and finished in third place for the expert women.
The next race that many DAS racers are planning to attend is Root 66's Hopbrook Dam. See you there!
Nice to read some feedback on the race. You DAS riders are okay!
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