As usual, my bike demonstrated that it is cursed with more obscure and strange mechanicals just before the race. Awesome. Again, Paul and I nearly missed the start of the race due to preriding. From the moment of the start, it was clear that I didn't have the juice. Not only that, but the course was not suited to me or my bike. It was primarily a flat, chattery course meant for a roadie on a duallie. It was a good thing that I had gears this week. Once I lost the lead group, it was tough to keep the motivation going. On the flats, I had trouble keeping the pace up. Any time that I did make up was on the brief, very steep climb. The chattery roots destroyed my hands with my rigid fork. By the end of the race I could barely pry my hands off of the bars. I managed to gather my strength to pass several guys on the last lap. Still, Paul broke his freehub on the last lap and still finished ahead of me. 10th for Paul, 12th for me. I find it funny that I would beat these guys on a *more* technical course on my roadie. Heck...I did it on a singlespeed last weekend.
Paul took off before the short track that afternoon, which went much better. I still got lapped by the leaders on their $12,000 duallies, but I felt fast and rode well. Though it was a small field, I still had a top ten finish at something like 8th.
Honestly, this weekend has me considering a new bike. I don't know if my hands can take a beating like that again, and my current frame can't handle a suspension fork.
Last quick note: I was featured as a brief blurb in the latest issue of Dartmouth Medicine Magazine. See attached.
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