So, here's what I did at the weekend
http://singletrackworld.com/2014/05/...ne-race-video/
http://singletrackworld.com/2014/06/...wo-race-video/
Total madness tbh, they shouldn't let people like me into world class events
3 days of practice, 2 days of racing, world champions everywhere you look (I met Andrew Shandro! Dude! Rode up one of the climbs with Tracey Hannah and Anne-Caro Chausson, they seemed pretty overawed to meet the legendary Northwind).
Saturday's trails were just ridiculous, bodies lying everywhere, there was one bit where I knew I couldn't ride it so I just decided where to crash beforehand and got on with it. So hard... Getting over to innerleithen for the downhill stage was a relief (though they'd taped a track that was harder than a typical inners downhill race, coming down it with 150mm of travel and an open face helmet was a bit iffy)
Sunday was a bit less technical but that just meant higher speeds, used some of the glentress trails and a bunch of new and old offpiste including some stuff I helped build- was pretty cool to hear Steve Peat raving about how good our new trail was. Never really got my race head on though, rode OK but really pretty safe and a long way off my speed.
50 miles and 8500 feet of climb doesn't seem so much but there was (for me) a full hour of full on charging in the timed stages, 10 minutes a time just flat out. Finished 80th in the E2 (amateur) class out of 200 (though, lots of DNFs in that, I think 120 actually completed the race). Well chuffed with that! I should really have made up about 10 more places if I'd ridden my best on sunday, but then I had a great day on saturday so maybe it balances.
Finished totally rebuilding my bike just in time for practice, and got the new stickers on it the night before the race kicked off...
IMG_2742 by
Northwindlowlander, on Flickr
IMG_2739 by
Northwindlowlander, on Flickr
Like a new bike- total nut and bolt rebuild, refinish, new forks, new bars, new seatpost, new gears... Didn't quite get the wheels done in time, so that was a bit of a bummer but tbh with a dh mud on the front saving 300g in the wheels probably doesn't make much difference
Probably best bit was getting back to the race HQ- people everywhere, not just riders but random Peebles people just out to check out the event, kids everywhere, rode down the track highfiving people like Bono on a bike
Even had kids ask me to sign their programmes! Here's Tracey Moseley taking the win in the women's class...
That's Tweedlove done for me, it's been amazing, back to normal now- I ache all over, bouncing from one race to the next with no real rest's broken me a bit. Wouldn't change a damn thing.