MASS Team Relay

Had my first race today of the MASS series. 4 man relay, 15 minute laps, 4 hours long, tight twisty singletrack with a decent selection of logs. We got 15 laps in total, I was the last one to roll out with 10 minutes left to go. There were extra points awarded to classes below expert so we came in 19th out of like 50 some teams of varying classes. The winners had 17 laps total but there were a couple of teams in front of us with only 14 laps but the extra points bumped them up. Weather was pretty cold, upper 30's with snow showers alternating with breaks of sun.

Dan, Chris, Kevin and I rolled for Trophy Bikes - Team Shiftless, 3 29ers and and a 26er. Course had a couple of steep climbs but was generally tight, twisty singletrack. Some technical spots but nothing crazy. The log crossings were amusing though. With the classes mixed together you might be following someone who has no idea how to get over the log; ride right into and lean back, pop a giant wheelie and slam into it, or slowly dismount and look you in the eye as they stand there. I saw a few of these and I'm sure there were worse. Guys in full race kit coming to a complete stop wasn't something I thought I'd see.

All of us but Kevin got 4 laps in. He probably could have gotten one more is Chris hadn't dropped his chain on the first climb of his first lap and I didn't destroy my front wheel during my 3rd lap. About a half mile from the finish I came a little heavy into a left turn, started to wash out but luckily I drifted right into a tree firmly planting my front wheel and going over the bars. Had a nice leafy tuck'n'roll landing but the wheel was a goner. Had to pull the wheel and do the caveman slam just to get it to clear the fork. Rear brake only action back to the finish sucked.

Had to borrow Chris' wheel for my last lap. Going from a 2.3 to a 1.9ish wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, decent traction but not as much float. Luckily my rim brakes worked with his wheel. Other than that we all had pretty quick laps, right around 15 minutes picking off other riders as we went.

My first lap was my worst. Starting off cold wasn't good, lots of guys on trainers warming up made me jelous. The worst of the climing was right at the beginning too. Came out a little to hot and went anaerobic and didn't really recover till close to the end of the lap. Pushing a hard pace like that is new to me, I'm more used to long, slow distance. The following laps went better though, still was pushing it but holding back just enough to keep it under control, I've got some learning to do. I do like this racing thing though....

So now I've got to get a new wheel built up, debating putting a disc on the front and reusing the surly hub on the track bike. I've got an old original Avid mechanical disc brake I might use. I still like rim brakes but there are times a disc would be handy. Don't want one for the rear with the messy slotted disc mount, too much of a hassle to pull the wheel.