I hung onto a good pace line in the flat section and was well positioned at the beginning of the climbs. When the uphill began, my chain started skipping really badly. I had replaced it on Wednesday and tested it out on pavement, but the kind of force exerted on dirt is entirely different, much more mashing, so the chain skipped on the two top cogs with every pedal stroke.

Frustrated, I was forced to drop to granny gear and spin my way up on a climb I usually do in the middle ring. When we got to a semiflat area, I put on the big ring and stood on the pedals....big mistake. My chain dropped to the middle ring immediately and I was lunged forward, hitting my privates on the stem. Ouch. This incident would keep me from sprinting out of corners and stuff like that.

I kept riding until a series of steep, technical climbs began, and much to my surprise I cleared them even with the chain skipping. Because of the difficulty of that section, I had no choice but to do them in my lowest gear, where the chain issues were at their worst. I was just waiting for it to break any moment. Sometimes I had to go at a much lower gear than usual and just spin and on other ocassions I had to push a harder gear. I wanted to drop out, but I was just amazed I kept passing one rider after another and wasn't getting passed too much. And it was still faster to ride up, even under such circumstance, than to walk.

Prior to starting, I really wanted to have a good race. July had been possibly my worst training month ever. Now, finally feeling OK, I was having mechanical issues. I really felt like getting off the bike and calling it quits, thinking I didn't need this crap.

But just passing riders who usually beat me in these races kept me going. And I figured it was too late to turn back, so I'd wait till the end of the first lap and then decide.

When we reached the long downhill section, I let go of my brakes and had a smooth run down the mountain, and before I knew it I was on to the second and final lap!

I found some guy to work with on the flats. Apparently, he just wanted a pull, but I told him we should switch every 20 or so seconds and he hesitantly agreed. It worked and we flew on the flats.

Once the climbs started again, I calmly played with my gearing to try to have it skip less. Then I just focused on picking off riders one by one. A lot of people were walking up the technical climbs, probably having run out of juice after the first lap. It was odd not being able to ride in my usual gearing, but it also made me spin more than usual and keep my legs fresher throughout the first lap. I managed to find and push a bigger gear than usual on the second lap because of that.

I tore it up on the downhill, a bit faster this time around and then finished the whole race about 13 minutes faster than expected!

Even though I tested the new chain for three straight days prior to the race, I did so on pavement and not on dirt. If I had known, I would have placed the old chain back on just for the race.

However, I'm sure that having to scale back on some of the climbs, especially during the first lap, left me with some power for a strong second lap.

I'm not really in contention in this age group, so my goal is usually to put in a good effort and not get passed too badly.

In this race, I FINALLY felt good physically and beat a lot of the people who usually finish a few minutes ahead of me.

Wornout drivetrain with new chain, not a good match on a MTB. Must replace cassette and big chainring.

Need to continue doing these races and improving. More MTB-specific training would also help. ;)

I know I put in a good, consistent effort because my AVG HR throughout the race was a bit higher than usual, but I felt fine and strong and managed to quiet the mind, shut out frustration and get the job done.


Next MTB race on September 10th!