This year the "wed xc" races are Fridays and we're doing a full day where you can do it solo, time trial style, or a mass start depending on your comfort/vaccination level. The course and timing are set up pretty much all day and then there's an actual race in the evening. This year I'm also working for Shaun/MTCX so I'm there all day helping get the course and things ready. Running all over up and down a mountain is probably not the ideal pre-race routine but on the other hand getting payed to be at a race is nice too.
Week one we did only the "show and go" format with a max starting group size of 4. I went out with Cory, Kory, and Owen and it was almost like a real bike race. It was a pretty short course, up the road to the lower part of hot sauce and right back down, so I rode my old hardtail for the extra uphill speed. It definitely doesn't handle rougher trails and the downhill like my hei hei but it sure climbs better. I wound up 7th, behind all the people I'd expect including Howard Grotts, who lives here now.
Week two was the first time I've worn full spandex on my hei hei I think. This was 2 laps of the full xc course and it's nice to have a more modern bike. I was in a good spot for about the first 5 minutes and then guys started pulling away and one more passed me. I stayed there and held off the fastest masters racers (here we do 40 plus and I'm getting close to there and we all started together). Thankfully it was only two laps because I was not having a good time. It was the first warm one and that always gets me. Like halfway up on the 2nd lap it seemed to be a little cooler and then I felt alright to the end.
The hei hei does make up decent ground coming back down. Comparing my best lap on strava I'm even for the first five minutes, and then lose 37 seconds in the next ~7 to the top of the last road climb before you get onto a kind of rolling bit of trail across the top of the course. There it's pretty even- gain a little ground going down, lose a bit on the short climb back up, then lose a bunch on the last stretch of road to the top, at this point I'm 52 seconds back on about a 20min lap. Then I come back to within 36. picking up 22s over about 3 minutes. However that is compared to my fastest lap, but not my fastest descent on the hardtail.
But maybe this will be an xc bike yet. It's close to 5lbs heavier but for the most part I was glad to be on it, and I have some lighter parts hopefully coming in the next few weeks. The guy in front of me kept riding away on the road and then I caught him at the bottom of the first lap. Then did it again on lap 2 and was almost in a sprint finish. Also, I did my fastest 2nd lap ever so that's something. Comparison says I did the 2nd half from the top, across, and down about 30s faster, and then was only significantly slower on the first part of the climb where you're basically sprinting. Kind of promising that I can put down a lap a good amount faster than I've done if I can just put it all together.
Behind Howard, Ivan finished 2nd and then his dad was 2nd in masters so we got some decent team points tonight. I was 10, after a 7th last week.
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