Time to finish off that story. I didn't realise people actually read this stuff! Oh, the presure...
So, anyway, Friday night went for dinner and a hot-spring bath, which took a lot longer than expected. You'd think I'd have learnt after five years in the country.
Picked up a couple of beers on the way home, then hung out with the usual suspects back at base camp. They weren't racing, but my team members had come up to watch the race and give moral support. Moral support, however, was to be in the form of teasing and application of large amounts of pressure. Only had a beer and a half, wanted to get a decent night's sleep. Ha. Wrong country.
Went to bed at 11.30, and dropped right off to sleep. Was woken up at 2.22am by the people next to me who had camped so close I couldn't even open my car door the next morning. They talked and babbled on for ages, the buggers, so I whacked in my earplugs, and luckily got back to sleep until about 7. Was reasonable, I guess, but I certainly felt better after I got about five cups of coffee under my belt.
Two practice runs, feeling good, great conditions, lots of sunshine, bike and rider in the zone, so I call it quits and hit the easy chair for about half an hour until it's time to head up for my race. Get to the top of the lift, pedal around for about ten minutes to try to warm up the legs a bit, get bored, so just go and wait in line. Freak out a few other competitors by not wearing any body armour, but hey, what can I say, I'm an Aussie!
Into the start gate, I'm first away (based on order of results from the previous race). beep....beep....beep....HERE WE GO! I'm out of the gate, round the starting gentle right-hander, shoot into the trees, off the first two dropoffs, fairly smooth and fast, a little too fast, not quite in enough control, so back it off a notch. Hit my stride, feeling good, corners are flowing, I'm maintaining momentum well out of the corners, and even get through the yucky uphill righthander my class has to do on the chicken course. Grip is good, still going well, into the fast, open bits so I really turn it on. Now I'm moving, fly through the singletrack, hit the first superberm - cruising. Fast. Off the log-jump (see photo below), through the corner and into the second super-berm. DOWN the long steep straight - oops, too fast, BRAKE....oops..onto a really rough patch BANG BANG BANG CLUNK. Whoah, made it, round the corner at the bottom, time to get on the gas. Stomp on the pedals - nothing! WHAT? Look down, chain has come off! "BADWORDS"
no time to fix it, I'll just have to roll, and see what happens. Shame there's still 70% of the course to go, but I actually smile, and enjoy the challenge of this sport. That's life, and I reckon I can still do well.
Long story short, of the remaining part of the course, there are only three points where I wish I could pedal - out of slow corners. Just letting gravity get me back up to speed costs me a lot of time, but at least I'm still riding smoothly, and no pedalling has one benefit - I'm not puffed out. This means I have all my strength to muscle the bike at speed, and I guess that helps.
Down through the final forest section, swing onto the ski-slope just before the finish line, try to stay off the brakes as I weave around the corners. Get a big cheer from my friends - great feeling. Very happy to have made it across the finish line in one piece, I hit the brakes and look up at the clock. OH MY GOODNESS! 6:47??? Thats at least 20s faster than I have ever ridden the course before! What if I could have pedalled? Will it be enough?
