Goin' Psycho

I raced yesterday. It sucked. Can't wait to do it again.

It was the first race in the Psycho-Series in Cincinnati, Harbin Park to be exact. The guys from Smitty's did a great job putting together a nice course and a great race.

Here's the rundown: poor start, no improvement into the singletrack, didn't pass as soon as I should, suffer, more suffering, and then it was over.

The bike was awesome except for this little clicking noise coming from the crankset and the fact that the shifting isn't quite right. I'm going to give Bob a chance to fix it, else the XTR stuff is going away and X.O will be taking its place. I create enough of my own problems, I don't need mechanical ones to go along with it.

Since I mentioned creating my own problems: I need to work on my climbing and my bike handling. The Scalpel is much faster than I am.........I have to trust it. I found myself braking for no good reason and doing stupid things just because I could. I think I was subliminally trying to delay the arrival of the next big climb. We were racing at Harbin Park in Cincinnati and it has 2 killer climbs. Not good for us gravitationally-challenged types. But the worst part was that I ended up in the vicinity of a Clydesdale that I would drop going up the hills and he would reel me right back in on the descents. This just confirms that my bike handling skills suck.

All in all my result was OK: 3rd in the Sport 35+ and 6th Sport overall (out of approx. 25 or so). Blaine Heppner and Joe Collins, my travelling partners for the day, took 1st and 2nd overall in Sport, so Louisville was well represented in the Class. I think I finished 6-ish minutes behind 1st and 4-ish minutes behind 2nd. I could probably picked up 2 to 3 minutes just in handling, so I think I know what to work on.

The good news is that my Shoulder didn't bother me at all, except when I rode off the trail in order to avoid tagging a tree with it.

Tips for my next race: Start better, trust the bike, work the climbs.