Red Barn wrap up
November 1st, 2008 |Fast course. Pretty much flat, hard turns including some 180’s, single barrier, gravel road, choppy rutty section with more hard turns, triple barrier, short steep downhill immediately followed by short steep uphill runup.
I was totally freaked out at the start after last week. But I wisely decided to start at the back and spend the first lap on Scotterob’s wheel. I hung on for as long as I could before his group started to pull away. See ya later!
After a short period of riding alone I found myself with a group of 3 other guys including Storm Trooper Jake Helmbrecht and Brian Koeneman. We worked together really well keeping the speed up and catching a few riders along the way. There were a couple of times that I was able to get over the barriers fast enough to hit the lead but I found that I was not able to pick the good line through the turns like Jake was. So I pretty much let him lead me around.
I made a sweet move over the triple barrier with 1 lap to go that I should have probably held back for another lap as it set me up to take the lead through the tricky downhill section and runup and it left me with a nice gap through the start finish line. But I knew that Jake and Brian would be coming on strong so I did not push my advantage.
It was the three of us on the final lap and I was able to get a gap on Brian over the final barriers but Jake was right there and he absolutely floored it to the downhill. I was able to stay close but not close enough to close the gap and he beat me across the line by a decent distance. He deserved it as he rode the course so much better than I.
It was a good day for me. I got over my fear of crashing pretty quickly and it was great to have a group to ride with. The low pressure caused some tire roll over but the bead stayed on the rim this week so I must have got the pressure set up right. Most of the course went through an x-mas tree farm and at one point I got a bit off course and rode through a tree. Just the branches though, not the trunk.
Little Frye played grab ass as I went by him late in the race, he’s into that sort of thing. That’s fine. Jimmer discovered a great new weight loss program, if he survives the dehydration.
The Funkster had a hard day today. First he almost cut his finger off with a butter knife this morning and then he broke his Campy Record Rear Derailleur in half while warming up. But Funkster is super tuff. He borrowed a bike and raced 60 minutes, blood soaking through his glove. Tuff.
Two more races to go for me this season: NSC Velo Cross and State Champs.
4 Responses to “Red Barn wrap up”
Most excellent. Glad to hear you kept up your trend of going off course, albeit this time, not much.
Don’t know what you’re talking about, that was Chazz Michaels Michaels.
Mr. Smith,
From the Red Barn link site, read your blog recap. You kept it steady all race long it seemed. I was able to even pickup a barrier technique or two from you, thanks,
Was happy to lend a hand & get you back on your way, when you cornered into that tree. You did have a nice recovery, I thought that tree had initially swallowed you up.
Same corner took me out in the last lap & I lost contact with you, Jake & BK — (I slide out & went down, couldn’t believe it happened to me on the GF Superfly!) Anyways great race – you did real well.
Best wishes in future races.
@Aaron Swanson: Thanks for the shove! That tree really sucked the momentum away. Sorry to have lost you from our group before the end. Thanks Aaron.