MTB Race

This past Sunday Lisa and I did our very first mountain bike race. It was more fun than a barrel full of monkeys! The race was the second race in a series of 9 races held down in the Fort Ord area (south of Santa Cruz). We both entered in the beginners race which was three laps around a 5 mile course. The course was pretty flat but when you are racing hard and a short steep hill can be really painful. I was a little worried that Lisa wasn't going to finish well and then swear off riding a mountain bike ever again, but I should have worried more about myself. Lisa finished 6 out of 12 with a time of 1:29:37. I finished 14 out of 17 with a time of 1:17:17.

I would have finished a little higher and quicker if it wasn't for some technical problems, my chain got jammed in the front deraileur three different times. Once it took me almost a minute to get it unstuck again. My bike computer read 1:15:29 but I didn't check it until about five minutes after I stopped riding, so I'd guess my total racing time was somewhere around 1:15:00 which would have put me around 11th or 12th. If you want to see the results for yourself go here http://www.cccx.org/mtb/2007/race2/2007_CCCX_MTB_Race2_Beginner.htm

I'm not too concerned about my time though. I hadn't done any riding at intensity so I'm glad I just survived. We plan to race again on March 31st and I plan to throw in some intervals to get some snap in my legs.