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Fitness Concepts Greenbrier Challenge AMBC - Greenbrier State Park, MD - 5/8/05

by Chris Clarke

Eric Welp, wearing his Hunter S. Thompson disguise, and I rode up to race yesterday and what follows is a largely factual account of those events. As far as I can recall, there were no giant blood sucking bats involved but there was definite fear and loathing.

Sunday was a glorious day for a mountain bike race and CityBike’s was well represented at the Greenbrier NORBA mountain bike race and tire changing contest. Clear and sunny with temperatures in the 70s. Our team posted many excellent results in the sport classes and I was amazed at the high speeds through the start finish area. Seeing how I was thoroughly winded from a modest warm up, I wondered how I was actually going to manage race pace.

Eventually, we were called to the starting pens. Many age divisions resulted in pretty small fields for the most part but it seemed like most fields were relatively deep in quality riders. Given that there was only ten riders in my field and the course easily accomodated passing in most places, there was no need to rush for the hole shot. I slotted in around fifth as we went up the first hill and rounded the early rock gardens like the proverbial drunken sailor. The first time up the big gnarly hill, I managed to ride the entire way in the middle ring and maintain good speed through the less steep upper portions. I rolled through the start finish in third with the leaders in sight. At some point on the next lap, I passed one of the two leaders and was feeling like I was on my way to a good race.

The good feeling came to an abrupt end as I flatted at the end of the second lap and lost 5-6 minutes changing a flat. “Gosh darn” is what I said. Time to invest in Big Air and maybe some rock tires. In my haste, I neglected to hook up my rear brake and had to stop again to hook it up and then another time to put the cable into the ferrules properly so the brake would work. Wah, wah, wah, woe was surely unto me. Any semblence of rythm and momentum were long gone. I dogged it around the course for the last lap as best I could and picked up two places for a fifth place finish.

Having been a beneficiary of flatting more than a victim in recent years, I suppose I had a karmic debt to pay and this race was as good a time as any to pay it. And, as I tell everyone who’ll listen, that’s racing.

Hope to see you all at the next race.

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