OK, so maybe "crashfest" is an overstatement, but I did have some of the biggest crashes I've had this year. I'm definitely feeling the effects today...
I didn't really have any expectations for the race. I was hoping my legs would feel halfway decent, and I was hoping I didn't have to go into "survival mode" too early. I also didn't want to finish last.
The pace was pretty high off the start, but not unmanageable. I was doing fine sticking with the back part of the field. I could immediately see how the Expert racers were different. Everyone basically rides well, and everyone knows how to pass and be passed. It's nice.
In the first part of the race, I was riding around a group of four. It looked like I was stronger on the climbs and flats, and they were stronger technical riders. On the first lap, I'd made a gap to some of them before the second half of the trail. Then, my first crash: a pretty easy sweeping left-hander and my bike just washed out. I'm pretty sure it was a case of leaning my body too much relative to my bike. I fell pretty hard on my left hip, but it didn't bother me right away. By the end of the first lap, our little group was back together. (Now that I look at the results, these guys must not have all been in my class.)
We eventually all split up again on the second lap. A couple guys went ahead, but I knew I still had one guy well behind me. I was still feeling more-or-less OK for most of the second lap, but I could feel my hip starting to get sore.
I was getting pretty tired early on the third lap and I was basically riding alone. The last time up "2-mile hill" put the hurt on me and I wasn't thinking very clearly coming down the descent. I got target fixation on a decent-sized rock on the trail (my brain was just going "rock, rock, rock")... with predictable results. I bashed into the rock; I must have also been on the brakes, because I went over the bars and off the trail. I sat there for a couple seconds trying to figure out if I was hurt. Eventually I realized that I wasn't, so I took off again.
The last crash took a lot of the fight out of me, and I was basically in survival mode for the rest of the lap. With about 3 miles to go, the guy who'd been behind me for so long finally caught and passed me. Pretty much nothing I could do about it at that point. So I ended up being the last finisher in our class.
Even with the crashes and bad result, I still felt pretty good about the race. I rode OK and my legs felt the best that they have in weeks. I think, as my fitness progresses, that I should be able move up a bit in the field. The main thing that I noticed was that, even though I'm riding better, there are still sections of the trail where I'm not as confident and slow down. It was clear to me that this is where huge gaps were opening up. I'm not fit enough right now to close those gaps down, at least not so many times per lap for three laps.
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