Bump 'N' Grind '17

When I first started racing mountain bikes, I would always get full of nervous excitement waiting at the starting line. My heart would be pounding five minutes before the race even began. In the last year or so this has changed; I'm much more calm and relaxed at the start. I think it's due to experience, getting stronger, and longer races. Racing singlespeed/cat 2 was a sprint from start to finish, but cat 1 races leave plenty of time to figure out who gets to be first. For some reason though, Bump 'N' Grind brought out a little bit of that nervous energy.

The race started out well enough. There was a split early on; out of the ten riders in my age group, four of us started trailing behind. I was having trouble keeping my speed through the corners due to running worn out tires at higher than optimal pressures due to the fast and rocky nature of the Oak Mountain trails. When we hit a short gravel road section, I saw the faster group up ahead and an opportunity to close the gap. Surprisingly, I did manage to catch up to them, but the other three riders behind me didn't follow.

At this point we were only a few miles in, and it started drizzling which slowly increased to a steady rain. The roots got slick in a hurry, and it wasn't long before there was a small river running down the trail. I soon fell behind again, back to the slower group which was beginning to spread out. I made up some ground on a long jeep road section, but lost it again in the technical singletrack. As the mud got deeper and my chance of doing well disappeared, I basically gave up and cruised the last ten miles or so. I finished the 29 mile course in 2:39, dead last not counting two DNFs.

After the race, I was completely covered in mud. My legs had a solid coating and the 'Ole Miss' on my jersey was illegible. The line to the bike washing station was a mile long, and I needed to check on Lucy - my windows had been halfway down the entire time... I had also used my only towel to cover the windshield to keep the sun out. After finding the parking lot mostly empty already and letting Lucy out, I decided to head for the lake across the road. I wasn't the only one with the idea. I went for a swim, shoes, helmet, bike, and all. I air dried, changed clothes, claimed a couple of free beers, watched the awards, got some food, and headed home.

Aside from the mud and crappy tires, there were other things that contributed to my poor result such as a lack of familiarity with the course and a lack of racing technical trails. Oak Mountain isn't the narrow ribbon of singletrack I'm used to. Hopefully next year I'll be better prepared.