Bear Pt. 2

I faced a mechanical myself just before my race run - as I took my rear caliper off to clean out the grime that was packing it, the connection from my brake line came loose so when I reattached the caliper and squeezed my brake lever oil spewed out everywhere. I managed to bleed the brake before my run but as I was about to find out, the damage was done and my rotor and brake pads were contaminated, with no brake clean to be found anywhere. Despite this I headed up the course in a good mind-set focused on the task at hand. I did a thorough warm up and was as ready as I have ever been by the time I was in the gate. Just into my run I realized that I had minimal if any stopping power in my rear brake, which forced me to be a bit conservative in the technical upper sections, my main card I was hoping to play. Once I got to the second hairpin entering the long flat middle section I was consciously relieved and set to work on the pedals. The weather had wrought havoc down on the course to the point that run-times increased by over 50%, so I found my handicap in conditioning really impacting me as I slogged through the muck. Save for a few dabs and a wash-out to near dead stop I felt I had a pretty consistent run, but by ¾ of the way down the course I was seriously hanging. I really didn’t have any power left at the end of the track, but I made it down safely and was pretty happy to find the end of the track.

After my run I was pretty satisfied with how things had gone, all things considered. My race strategy and mental game both went really well and I didn’t get hurt, which were three of my main goals. My mechanical was unexcusable, but there was nothing I could do about it at the time. I didn’t feel that I rode at my best and my lack of stopping power didn’t help, but a bunch of friends came up afterwards and complemented me on the sections they saw, so that was encouraging. As well it was really satisfying to work with our younger riders and see them pull off a successful weekend. I ended up 23^rd, which was a long way off where I was hoping to be, but it was my first race back in 11 months and my conditioning, confidence and speed will only increase as I get to spend more time on my bike so I have to try to be patient. A highlight of the weekend for me was getting to throw Thomas in the Old Mill Pond after he placed 3^rd, a Bear Mountain tradition for those who earn the podium. He is killing it every time I see him on the bike and undoubtedly has good things in his future. Our next race is Arduum on the weekend of the 10^th, so we have our work cut out for us over the next 2 weeks in training for the most technical race of the year, undoubtedly much more my style.