The day after a race weekend is usually kind of a let down. It's hard to concentrate on work after being immersed in bike racing all weekend. On the long drive home from Chattanooga Tn. last night I was dreading another drive to the next race. Now I find myself looking forward to. Sick.
SERC #5?
I think it's race 5, anyhoo. Nature Park Trails in Chattanooga Tn., right next to the 200 acre Volkswagen plant. A system of machine built goodness through hilly hardwood forest. Trail was a rock base built along the contours. Plenty of flow, no crazy obstacles.
The Lovely Wife, The Kid, and I started the 6 hour drive Saturday morning. The forecast was for a 100% chance of rain Sunday. I'll admit I had severe reservations about riding a trail I'd never seen, in the mountains, in a driving rain. After the BIG CRASH I'm a big wimp when it comes to riding slick stuff. But I want to do the series even though the chances of success are slim.
We arrived at the park to sunny skies at around 3 on Saturday afternoon. The Kid and I had decided to ride 2 laps since we might not get the chance to enjoy the course the next day. It started with a 1 mile paved road climb then ducked onto the single track. It was dry with small pebbles on the outside of the turns that kept things interesting. No really long climbs except the paved road, and some screaming fast sections. Sooo much fun. If we were going to race in the rain this was the perfect course for it.
We have found Chili's to be our go to restaurant when on the road racing. Yea I know it's a chain and not that "cool" but we have had good food and service at everyone we visited. The Kid will eat the chips, and The Lovely Wife and I had steaks. I, of course, had my obligatory pre race beer. We retired to a very nice Holiday Inn Express and watched motocross while it stormed outside.
I refused to look at the radar the next morning. It at least wasn't thundering. In fact it was only sprinkling as we loaded the bikes. We had dodged a bullet. It didn't rain all day. Sweet!
The Race
The Kid raced in the morning, 19-30 cat 2. He was running with the top 3 when he cramped. The guy that has been crushing his class set the fastest lap of anyone (including all the cat 1's), then flatted. It was all set up for The Kid to win but it was not to be. While he jumped around trying to get the cramp to let go an unidentified oriental man appeared out of the woods and offered to help. He first said "no speak english" then began to help stretch the offending leg. The Kid called him his trail spirit after finishing 5th. Weird huh?
There were only 3 of us in the 60+ class, sad. Let me get this out of the way, I do feel like I'm cherry picking this class. Yes, it is a cat 3 class and yes I was a cat 1 before THE CRASH (a back of the pack cat 1). I raced this class in the FSC and never won. I can't help it if the competition isn't as strong in the GSC or the SERC. Can I?
The Start
I locked out the suspension and stood on the pedals as the whistle blew. I never saw the other guys again. That's not to say I didn't get to race with someone, there's always the juniors that start on the row behind us. Those kids go out like a wildfire, and cool off just as quickly. I caught 4 of the 50+ base that start in front of us. I was in some kind of traffic the whole 2 laps. It slows me down because I don't want to get in the way of the juniors race and I had a big gap on my class. In the end I won by 9 minutes. So far I have won all the GSC and all the SERC. The problem is Gone Riding gave a 15 point bonus just for attending the second round and I didn't go. Dumb. So I'm currently 6 points out of first with not much hope of getting them back, even if I win everything. On the plus side I'm ahead in the GSC, so I've got that goin for me.
Looking Back
It was a great weekend. I never would have gone if I hadn't been running a series. I got to spend the weekend with my family. I'll be sad when I got too old to do this stuff. Next race is Bump and Grind up near Birmingham Al.
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