Sunday was the race. I was a little concerned about the distance beforehand. This was the first cross-country race I've done in the Sport class, which means there's an extra lap. My other Sport races have been time trials, so just one lap. It didn't help that my plan was to "train through" this race, so my legs were a bit tired before I even started.
I didn't push too hard at the start. I knew I wasn't going to be competitive with the top guys, so I thought it was good form to stay out of their way at the beginning. The fast guys were fast enough that my "strategy" probably didn't matter too much. There was a short open section before we hit the singletrack, and I was probably slightly below mid-pack when we hit it.
The first part of the race was pretty uneventful. I was in a group of about 4 or 5, and we kept swapping spots through the different sections. One thing started to become apparant to me pretty early on, I was able to open (or close) gaps on the flats and climbs, but the guys around me could open gaps on the more technical singletrack. Later in the first lap, our group pared down to three: me, a guy in a SpongeBob jersey and one other in a not-so-distinctive jersey. SpongeBob and the other guy led me for most of that first lap, but I decided that I needed to stay on SpongeBob's wheel, so that's what I did.
We had one incident about 2/3rds of the way through the first lap. Two of the top Sport riders in an older group caught us in a fairly open section. They passed me without incident, but SpongeBob didn't move over. The two guys yelled at him and the second guy smacked him on the shoulder when he went by. Yeah, SpongeBob should have gotten over, but the actions of the other two were really uncalled for. Hopefully SpongeBob got their numbers.
Anyway, at the start of the second lap, my tactic of staying on SpongeBob's wheel paid off. He popped less than a mile into the second lap and so did the other guy. I was still feeling decent and was able to open a gap on them. I didn't see SpongeBob again until after the race, but I'm not sure if the other guy got back by me or not, there were several people from his club/team out there racing. The rest of my second lap was pretty uneventful. I mostly rode by myself, some of the fastest Beginners started coming by on their only lap, but I didn't have any real issues with traffic. I ended up not having much issue with the distance. I was able to really drop the hammer on the last 1.5 miles or so; it was a pretty fast, flat section.
All things considered, I had a good race. My lap times were about 4 minutes faster than my lap time from last year, and I did both laps in nearly the same time.
Given how I felt after the race and the amount of energy I had at the end, I feel like maybe I didn't go hard enough. On the other hand, I did go hard at the places where I could go hard. There were just long stretches of the course where my speed was limited by the terrain (or, my ability to ride the terrain). I know that these sections can be ridden faster, since I saw other guys do it, so I don't know if it's an issue of my ability or not being too familiar with the trail, probably some of both. At least compared to the other guys racing around the back of the Sport field, this technical ability seems to be my big weakness, certainly moreso than any aspect of fitness.
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