a day that will live in ignomy

I suffered my Short Track Mountain Bike racing debut yesterday.  Going into it, I wasn't to hopeful about how I would do and in retrospect, that was probably a pretty optimistic outlook given the reality of my race.  Short track, for those of you who don't know, is a mountain bike race that is raced by time (like cyclocross) and features a short course with some technical mtn. biking and some wide open, power sections.

This race started on a sidewalk, went into a parking lot, turned in the parking lot and then dove into a singletrack trail in the woods.  There were lots of high speed berm turns, which are not my forte, and a little bit of climbing.  So how was my race?

(spoken with heavy southern drawl a la NASCAR) First off, I want to thank all of the Fiets Maan Racing and Luna Cycles Crew for getting my SRAM/Crank Brothers/Rock Shox/Specialized Epic Expert bike in perfect condition for today's race.  Things were looking purty good... I came off the line good... hit the woods in about 6th position... and then the bike, she got a little loose in turn 2... I came off the berm funny... slid a little bit and got right into a tree.  I'm just glad all the other racers behind me were able to get around me clean. I guess that's racin'.

I got back in it after putting my chain back on, but I was tentative from then on. I was way back, so not much hope of doing anything, but I stayed in it for the training effort. I didn't finish last which is both gratifying and surprising, but I'll take it.