Mt Bike, PIR Short Track 2009: Round 4 of 7, July 13

Race Report

PIR Mt Bike Short Track Round #4, July 13, 2009

Cat 2 Women, 35+, 1st Place

by Elaine Bothe

Fabulous course (my favorite so far, I decided in my warmup laps), fabulous weather, fabulous turnout. All the Cat 2 regulars including myself, Sage, Eileen, Kris, Beth Burns, Lindsey and others all line up across the start line, 30 or so women in all age groups.

We watch the single speed guys do a LeMans start… that’s nuts, they laid their bikes down in 3 rows on the ground about 25 yards away, came back to the start line, then run to their bikes. One guy hurtled himself down the start way early, just for the fun of it. I think he pulled off later to be fair, but it was a very funny sight.

Now we’re all talking about what would be the best place to put our bikes… front row? Back row so you don’t have to jump over someone’s bike to get yours? But fortunately, while those starts are fun, we didn’t have to do it. I think they’re more fun to watch!

Off we go. People are catching onto the “get a good start” concept because I’m not getting the hole shot anymore! We all want to be in front. Eileen, Kris, Lindsey, another couple two or three, plus myself and Sage are in the front for the first corner. I pass those others and start to chase down Eileen, Kris and Lindsey around the start loop with Sage on my tail. She’s yelling go! Pedal! You can catch them.

This is true. I’m closing the gap and Sage is following closely. My legs are back in good working order, I ate well all day and had proper Hammer fuel leading up to the race. I feel really strong. I also made a point of mentally relaxing myself again before the race, seemed to work for me at Tabor last week.

One more right hand corner before the infamous pea gravel hill. Low gear, pedal hard to build momentum. I set up my line to stay right, just in case… because I see the lead three hit the center, and just to the left. I know it’s soft on the other side, and we need to turn hard right. I anticipated a crash that I might need to get around.

Sure enough, after I crest the hill I see a side view of Lindsey, laying on the ground, Eileen goes down too and I’m not sure where Kris goes because I’m looking to the right. Everyone’s OK, just dirty, so I get past everyone and take off into first place back toward the motocross course.

This is where my racing gets boring, but the riding is still a blast. I build as big of a gap as I can, sorry to take such advantage of a crash, but who knows, I might be next. Crashes happen, a lot. But I didn’t crash, not even over the log which I made myself attack each lap even though there was a go-around. Had to mentally conquer the log after last week’s big ol’ get-off.

I keep riding hard, I look back and I see four intense faces chasing me, racing intently three and four wide into some of the twisty sections. I expect for them to catch up but this is a real technical yet flowing course, which suits me perfectly. Eventually I can’t see them anymore, and I take the win.

Eileen, Sage, Kris, Beth and Lindsey, and another woman are racing hard, it was fun hearing about their race. It was a very close finish. Eileen got 2nd, Kris, 3rd, Sage, 4th and Beth, 5th in our age group. Lindsey took 2nd in the under 34 group.