I must say the c-dale performed awesome all day long. Blasting down the creeks was really one of the good places to pass. The only problem I had was on the second lap going up the hill with the jumps my handle bars came loose on one of the bigger jumps sending me over the bars turning me into a speed bump. I had to ride about half a lap with them loose until I found some people on the side of the trail with some tools to tighten them up. After that is a wild ride, coming off jumps rodeo style as my hands were sliding off the grips. Definately a spincter factor of 10 doing one handed jumps.
I am glad to see Craig get into the XC scene. He had a good showing for his first gncc, would have been better if he hadn't got tangled up there at the end. Hope to see you at Millfield.
Well, besides the flood, the super awsome pit area we would have had if Noa's Arc didnt come to watch the race........wet socks all weekend! (I have been to Lorettas before, never expected I would need wader boots)
I sure planned on getting a terrible start. Every row that took off before me, I practiced my start. I just couldnt get the timing right. But once it was my turn, everything flowed together and I was off the line just as as fast as most. The first turn was interesting with 40+ riders going into it......I managed to squeese through a bunch that spun out and ended up prolly 10th into the woods. About 3 minutes into the race, I realized my roll-offs had quit working, and ditched the googles. I know I missed alot of passing ops since I couldnt get right up on the next guy. Ive always been a pretty brave hill-climber, so I made quite a few passes on the hill climbs. Fast Forward.
Well, the second lap, my pit crew decided it would be best to stand right in the middle of a crowd of oh say, at least 75 people. Now how you are supposed to pick out 3 people in that crowd, when everyone is waving at someone is beyond me! My pit crew are now looking for a job. Anyways, I rode the first two laps with no goggles......fun fun fun! Second lap I managed to get stuck in some ruts......someone got stuck behind me, I helped them, he said thanks-vroomm! He was gone. I wont help anyone anymore unless Im just out of the race, or I know them.
So I lost prolly 4-5 minutes in the ruts (Im not real strong anyways, so pulling a quad out of the ruts after riding for an hour is next to impossible for me!) I was back on my quad and off. The rest of that lap was pretty good, and this time around, "Hey, theres my pit crew!!" So I get new gloves, have them wipe the 20 extras pounds of mud off my helmet, and get ready to put on my new goggles.........then we get roosted like crazy. So do the insides of my new googles. So the last lap I go without googles.
I made alot of passes in the rutted sections where people would be stuck....of just be sitting there waiting for the next guy to move. Next thing I know, Im behind Dan!!! Dan wont let me around for anything in this world, but we were less than 3 miles from the finish, I prolly would be letting anyone around at that point either. On the last hill climb, theres a Ute quad with a broken axle, Dan stalls his quad, gets it going, and we both take different lines, as I manage to get around him on the hill climb.
I come to a downhill and at the bottom is a 450R (you couldnt give me one of those) stalled and a few guys waiting. I try to go around all of them and I get my front tire wedged between his nerf and front tire. That holds me up and lets prolly 10 people get around us before I get free.
I ended up wit ha 10th place finish out of 48. I got wood my first GNCC race. It felt awsome. I only wanted to finish the race, I really didnt care if I was last place. But....it makes me realize what I can do if everything were to work better.......my roll-off film didnt break, I could find my pit crew, I use my head a little more with the bottle necks (part of that was not being able to see very well!)
Anyways, the C-Dale was awsome, I never really even got tired. I know why Jeff won Sparta now........put that Dale in a set of ruts and let it eat! Might as well be on rails.
Hey Ducman, was that your first race since having your surgery? I'm just looking for a time frame on when I might possibly be back on the quad racing again. How did it feel?
Originally posted by cdaleracer Hey Ducman, was that your first race since having your surgery? I'm just looking for a time frame on when I might possibly be back on the quad racing again. How did it feel?
Well I ran a motocross race two weeks ago, but I really just rode around so I would say this was my first real race back. I had surgery on Sept 28 so it has been about 7 months without riding, but you seem to be doing much better than I was at the point you are at. The race was really hard on me, after about five minutes both of my grips started turing on the bars so I had to squeeze the heck out of them to hold on. By the end of the race I had to jam my hand in my hand guards on the hill climbs just so I could stay on the bike, I would expect that you will have the same problem with not much strength in your hand or wrist (also really hard to hold yourself back on the downhills). Anyway after the race I couldn't even get my watch back on because of the swelling, but as of today I can start moving my wrist again. I am planning on running the next race at Athens, this seems to be the best therapy I have found. Good luck getting back riding at least I was down through the winter.
That is so weird.... I had surgery on my wrist exactly 6 months after you!! Had mine March 28. It was also The Jaspman's birthday, needless to say he was a little upset that he had to sit in the hospital alone that day. Hey, atleast I got him out of work for his birthday. That should count as something.
7 months, well that should put me racing in October. Not going to work, need back on the Cannondale soon!I have 4 more weeks until the bone is healed. I will get on the quad then and ride around the track see how it feels. I'm sure it will be a long time until I can actually take jumps without pain.
Yea jumps seem to be the biggest problem. When I land it will bend my wrist back and I don't have full range of motion anymore, feels like you sprain your wrist on every jump.:cry:
I was so sure about coming until Friday when I found out that I had a research paper due on Tuesday and I hadn't started. Since I had Saturday off, I knew that I had to get it done then b/c I had to work on Sunday and Monday. Then I found out Monday that the paper isn't due until Friday:mad: I wanted to be down there so bad...especially after it rained all week. Maybe next time we can throw down some brewskies and watch some pro racing.