Sunday October 30, 2011 I traveled to Tuscaloosa, AL to race in Bamacross #3 at Munny Sokol. It was a cold morning, first frost of the year I think, high 30’s when I left the house but the day warmed up by race time to sunny and low 60’s. The course was a combination of twisty singletrack and some technical, fast, dusty track. There were two sets of barriers and one 6” rocky step up that was rideable by most racers. The race field was around 30 or so.
The start was a nice 300 yard paved road that gave way to a quick, hard start, I hit the first turn onto the course sitting 8th or 9th wheel. The first couple laps I rode strong, never letting the leaders get out of my sight, but after about 25 minutes I began to fall back a little and try to recover some. I made several passes and worked my way up to 5th or 6th at one point then gave back some spots.
With two laps left I was sitting in 7th and battling David, who had been pulling away from me on the flats all day, and then I would pull him back in the singletrack. Boris was also up there most of the day battling back and forth with us as well. (David videoed the whole race from his handlebars so can’t wait to see what all he got) With two laps left, I passed David right as we entered the woods and started my attack. I knew I was faster through the singletrack than David but was worried about him catching me on the front part of the course where the flats favored him more. I managed to put about 100 yards on him by the time I hit the start and heard the bell so I put my head down and pushed hard. I saw Andrew about 150 yards in front of me and wanted a top five so I entered my last lap all out. I was chasing and trying to make up time through the first set of barriers, that were 3 deep and only 4” high, but on a steep off camber uphill that made them a little tricky. I tried riding them before the race but running ended up being faster.
Now it was the last lap and I was pushing hard, my hips and back were stinging like hundreds of bees biting me and my legs were starting to go numb. I went into the barriers to dismount and my legs went out from under me, it was all I could do to get back up after several tumbles. I grabbed my bike and sprinted through the barriers trying not to lose much time, jumped on my bike to go and found out I had dropped my chain. Got back off and threw my front derailleur over to catch my chain and then re-mounted to go again.
By this time David had caught me and I had lost any chance of catching Andrew who was now out of sight. David opened up a 50-75 yard gap on me and it was all I could do to hang on and not lose more time through the flats. I rode hard through the single track and closed the gap down to only a couple seconds but just wasn’t able to pull him back by the finish line. Ended up 7th on the day. It was a good finish and good race, my first top ten in the Bamacross series so really happy about that. I feel a little sore and fatigued this morning and am probably going to take a couple days off this week from training to recover and prepare for Chainbusters 6hr race in two weeks. Five weekends of racing and training are beginning to take a toll on me so I might take off next weekend’s race for Bamacross #4 as well. Overall a really fun course to race and a great job by the race organizers!
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