Weather was a bit chilly at first, but not near as cold as my weather app led me to believe. The race was maybe 1 mile from my apartment so as part of my warm-up, I decided to ride to the trails. While I knew that 30+ racers had pre-registered for the race, I was shocked to see even more had registered on-site.
This was the first time that a usac sanctioned mtb race has been held at the university of south alabama and the event went great. Anyway, onto the fun stuff. Yours truly raced in the single-speed category which was 2 laps (lap 2 was slightly different) Since I'm local and ride these trails regularly, I felt comfortable with my gearing for once which was nice.
Once they sent us off, I managed to get the holeshot by taking off at 23mph+ on the gravel road that led to the trail entrance. Once in the trail, I felt fairly comfortable, even though my competition was right behind me. I knew however, that the trails were realy slick due to a lot of pine straw compared to normal.
I did fine for the first couple of minutes in the trail, then while taking a tight turn I found myself laying on the ground. I managed to get up fairly quick and got my chain back on (I run a regular frame with a spring loaded chain tensioner so during the crash, my chain popped off) but I was unable to close the gap that had been created by my crash. I did however, keep 1st and 2nd within sight, just never got up to them which made for a long race.
I ended up finishing 3rd which was a bit depressing, since this was my only chance to win on my home turf, but i rode strong and i will hopefully have the opportunity to return to the race next year and redeem myself. One more race this season, then a bit of rest until the start of my 2015 mtb schedule..
