Day 2 comes to a rather turbulent close.
It starts out calm enough. It's tough to be the lowest placed rider, who actually showed up. But hey, no place to go but up from here. I think the lesson learned it that there was somewhere north of 550 points for on-road riding. If you are going to be competitive, you'd best have your game face on. So, time for some Performance water.
J4S can only see the future weather as he fuels his 12th place start:
Soon enough, we are off to the next series of events. Having absolutely no position to protect, my day should be filled with magical unicorns that poop butterflies. Or so I think.
Challenge 1:
Ride the swale down, ride up the hill, parallel the hill, and descend the swale. Points lost for dabbing, missing/hitting cones, stalling, and DNF for drop.
Surprisingly, mojo has joined me again today. Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 2:
Steep long up hill, down hill, turn. Points lost for dabbing, missing/hitting cones, stalling, and DNF for drop.
The tough part about a lot of these today is there is no walking the course. Other than what you can see from the rider in front of you, there is little that you know about the course. In this case, the backside of the hill is blind to us. Turns out there is a steep downhill then a turn out.
It's steeper than it looks (notice how small the judge is?)
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 3:
Ride a series of camel humps.
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 4:
Ride through the gravel pit, and making two turns.
I lose one point for a dab, but somehow get through it..
Challenge 5:
Ride over a series of 15 concrete culverts that are half buried. Really, UBER bumpy but what fun these were!
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 6:
Cone weave. These were offset and tight. Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 7:
Oh, for the love of god, if I never see another lock-to-lock figure eight again it will be too soon. This means that Blaster will surely make a permanent fixture of one in the yard..
Lost a ton of points for dabbing on this one, but no cones ate..
Challenge 8:
The Rock Garden.
Vid posted above, but rode pretty well actually. Lost -2 points for clipped the cone at the exit...however, I didn't see it when I picked that line and I was pretty much over it by the time I saw it.
Finishing up the ride, I decide to go take some photos. I run into Neal taking photos. Kinda funny standing next to a $8K camera of his taking out the Point-and-pray. Nonetheless, he was quite inspiring. He lets me know that once you dab, since there is no time....gather yourself before you continue. This will prove invaluable later in the day.
It starts out calm enough. It's tough to be the lowest placed rider, who actually showed up. But hey, no place to go but up from here. I think the lesson learned it that there was somewhere north of 550 points for on-road riding. If you are going to be competitive, you'd best have your game face on. So, time for some Performance water.
J4S can only see the future weather as he fuels his 12th place start:
Soon enough, we are off to the next series of events. Having absolutely no position to protect, my day should be filled with magical unicorns that poop butterflies. Or so I think.
Challenge 1:
Ride the swale down, ride up the hill, parallel the hill, and descend the swale. Points lost for dabbing, missing/hitting cones, stalling, and DNF for drop.
Surprisingly, mojo has joined me again today. Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 2:
Steep long up hill, down hill, turn. Points lost for dabbing, missing/hitting cones, stalling, and DNF for drop.
The tough part about a lot of these today is there is no walking the course. Other than what you can see from the rider in front of you, there is little that you know about the course. In this case, the backside of the hill is blind to us. Turns out there is a steep downhill then a turn out.
It's steeper than it looks (notice how small the judge is?)
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 3:
Ride a series of camel humps.
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 4:
Ride through the gravel pit, and making two turns.
I lose one point for a dab, but somehow get through it..
Challenge 5:
Ride over a series of 15 concrete culverts that are half buried. Really, UBER bumpy but what fun these were!
Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 6:
Cone weave. These were offset and tight. Full points (but never to find out how many that was..)
Challenge 7:
Oh, for the love of god, if I never see another lock-to-lock figure eight again it will be too soon. This means that Blaster will surely make a permanent fixture of one in the yard..
Lost a ton of points for dabbing on this one, but no cones ate..
Challenge 8:
The Rock Garden.
Vid posted above, but rode pretty well actually. Lost -2 points for clipped the cone at the exit...however, I didn't see it when I picked that line and I was pretty much over it by the time I saw it.
Finishing up the ride, I decide to go take some photos. I run into Neal taking photos. Kinda funny standing next to a $8K camera of his taking out the Point-and-pray. Nonetheless, he was quite inspiring. He lets me know that once you dab, since there is no time....gather yourself before you continue. This will prove invaluable later in the day.