In untypical September fashion, Diesel was up and out the door early Sunday morning for a two hour drive to race while A-Train was still face down in his bed with his head buried under his pillow. My how the tides have changed. Okay, well, they haven't changed that much. On Saturday morning A-Train was up before dawn to squeeze in a two hour road ride in-between the passing rain showers. He had to cut it short at 90 minutes though as his legs could not take anymore of the wind. "It seems it is possible to ride for 90 minutes in a variety of directions and always be fighting a head wind. It was cold. It was wet. It was dark. It sucked. But I did it."
On Saturday evening, texts and email were flying about as fellow Twin Six-er, Jon Dub9, was feeding Diesel a big plate of Pando. Diesel had never been there before so A-Train advised him to contact Dubs. So he got the skinny on the course from Dubs, was home by the time the street lights were on and was tucked in bed by Mrs Diesel.....fast asleep dreaming of tubeless tires until morning.
Day break came, the X-terra was loaded up and the cruise control was set as the truck headed due West. The weather was perfect for racing, low 60's and sunny at the start of the race. 26 other people gathered at the start for Diesel's race. Off the line he managed to sit himself in the top five to keep the leaders within striking distance. Things were going great on the short but very hilly 1st lap. It only take ~22 minutes to lap around Pando but the catch is you are either going up an hill or down one, there is no in-between.
But then it happened, in the fast pace line that was still together half way through the first lap, the rider in front of him brake checked hard and Diesel had little time to react. Tires kissed and Diesel found himself on the ground with his chain hopped. While it only took 11-15 seconds to get the chain back on, in that small amount of time he estimates he lost 15 places on the grid. Time to play Frogger.
After ducking, dodging and hopping around for the next lap and a half he realized he had the wrong bike with him that day. The full suspension was holding him back and the top three leaders were gaping him more and more after every climb. He had advanced himself back into what he figured was the top five but he had to burn a couple matches to get there. "You'd think on such a small course you would be able to remember more of it but it just went by so fast. Just when you'd take a mental note of a section you were back on it again before you knew what happened. When you are used to your laps averaging 30-35 minutes at other races, that 20-22 minutes goes by really fast."
On the last lap Diesel did manage to get his tractor beam lock onto one more rider in his class but he was never able to close the gap to the podium spots. He rolled in for a well earned 4th place out of 27, only 3 minutes out from first place. Solid finish considering the unplanned dismount. He was able to collect a fair amount of points in the series standing but not enough to shoot him into the top three. So Diesel ends the MMBA CPS series in 4th place overall in the Men's Sport 40-49 Division. He had fun and said it was worth the trip but would be 50/50 on returning again next year. "Lots of climbing but most of it was smooth climbing. The course didn't have much 'true' singletrack and I prefer that."
Next up, the final race of the 2012 season for the Motor Club, the Burchfield TT. Was a fun race last year with a low key atmosphere and a collection of cool people. Looking forward to seeing them all again and talking shop around the bonfire after the race.
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