Westgate Dirt Crits, Thurs 24th September
Jesus, this one was a bloody slog again. Plenty of rain during the day made the course a bit sloppy, but it was drying out in the welcome evening sun.
First lap was a blinder, the whole of C grade chugging round the short course together for once, with the pace not too high, which was interesting. The course changes meant everyone was finding their way a little bit, not wanting to break off the front too early in case they got the route wrong and blew the race.
Second lap though, the wind picked up, and we were riding into it down the main straight, AGAIN. Melbourne is one of the most consistently windy places I have ever been, apparently it's like this all winter. Misery abounds for tired legs.
Anyway, about half way through the second lap flying through one of the technical sections and lying about 5th or 6th, I clobbered my front derailleur off a stump at the side of the trail, hard enough the knock the alignment out. Great. No big ring and if I tried to shift down, it threw the chain off. This reduced me to about 4 usable gears, and from then on I just lost place after place and rapidly ended up at the back of the field. Couldn't sprint as my gears were too low, couldn't climb fast as my gears were too high. Bugger. Couple that with the irritating noise of my chain grinding against the derailleur cage, and the remaining two laps were enough for me.
Finally dragged myself in in 10th place, surprised to find I wasn't actually last! God knows how the lad behind me failed to catch me, but there you go. Felt absolutely wrecked at the end, and to top it all off there were none of the usual finish line beers!!!! FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!!
First lap was a blinder, the whole of C grade chugging round the short course together for once, with the pace not too high, which was interesting. The course changes meant everyone was finding their way a little bit, not wanting to break off the front too early in case they got the route wrong and blew the race.
Second lap though, the wind picked up, and we were riding into it down the main straight, AGAIN. Melbourne is one of the most consistently windy places I have ever been, apparently it's like this all winter. Misery abounds for tired legs.
Anyway, about half way through the second lap flying through one of the technical sections and lying about 5th or 6th, I clobbered my front derailleur off a stump at the side of the trail, hard enough the knock the alignment out. Great. No big ring and if I tried to shift down, it threw the chain off. This reduced me to about 4 usable gears, and from then on I just lost place after place and rapidly ended up at the back of the field. Couldn't sprint as my gears were too low, couldn't climb fast as my gears were too high. Bugger. Couple that with the irritating noise of my chain grinding against the derailleur cage, and the remaining two laps were enough for me.
Finally dragged myself in in 10th place, surprised to find I wasn't actually last! God knows how the lad behind me failed to catch me, but there you go. Felt absolutely wrecked at the end, and to top it all off there were none of the usual finish line beers!!!! FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!!