Ah sorry Simon I thought those were some of your pics!
I got a decent run and was about 30m behind a group of 5 when getting on the bike, Craig was still behind then (can't have been too confortable running in those shorts), but last year's Norwegian champion was there and so were I think Decker and Brown. They were all tucked in drafting into the descent/flat bit, and I killed myself trying to join them before the long singletrack climb started properly after the left-turn where photographers had gathered. I was getting closer and almost caught them, thinking to myself this was the coolest thing ever to be riding alongside those world-worthy champions. But then we hit the climb - which was too long and not quite steep enough to ride out of the saddle, but just that little too steep to ride seated confortably with my 36*17 ratio, well for my mortal legs anyway as I heard Craig had a monster gear which didn't seem to hurt him - and I began to lose touch with them.
For once I hadn't had much to drink the night before, by ss races standard anyway - just two small bears and two whisky & coke. I think my days of drinking just for the sake of it are over and last time I'd done I felt terrible in the race and didn't enjoy it much, so I wanted to have an enjoyable race with also no pressure on myself for a good result (even though you always somehow hope for one). But this time I enjoyed it even less, for a number of reasons which were mainly that the course was super tough - many climbs too steep for me to ride, rear tire slipping on roots, downhills where I had to brake because my bike couldn't handle it, the big drop off that I had to walk in front of everyone watching as my low, forward and unsuspended front end would've sent me over the bars. Oh and I was expecting a 1 to 1.5 hour ride, whereas the few who did the whole five laps must have been racing for over two hours - I had finished my two bottles within the first lap and a half (it got pretty hot despite beeing freezing cold as we got up a couple hours before) and had to stop to steal some of Simon's Camelback content that he'd left at the start. And, besides all the excuses, I guess the biggest was that I wasn't very strong myself either.
I was now getting overtaken on the climbs and the downhills. Jon Webb came past uphill, having only raced downhill this year but still strong as ever it seems. Then Kelli Emmet the eventual female winner, I tried keeping up on the downs but scared myself a few times and when it came to the rutted section of the downhill just had to use the brakes as the bike was shivering out of control. I realised there wasn't a single section of the course I was enjoying, and even though I was probably still about 25th-30th, considered stopping. At the end of the third lap it got a bit confusing as it often is in those races, the organiser was noting rider numbers and the guys just ahead of me both stopped, I think someone shouted it was over, so I came to a halt before realising, some 30 seconds later, that most people were carrying on and that it wasn't actually finished. I thought about going out again for a second but in the end just couldn't be bothered, it was never meant to be serious racing anyway (last year I got 4th but never saw it printed anywhere, and the year before the race was only a qualifier for a kart-race which decided on the winners) and I was pretty knackered and dehydrated, so lied down still for a while, before I saw Simon and a friend from the campsite stopping then going out for an easy 4th and final lap - again I considered it but just couldn't be bothered.
As it had happened once before after a cyclocross race on a particularly boring and muddy course with a dismal result, I got a bit disgusted with racing and thought that would be it for this season. But it wasn't long till watching all the races at the (proper) World Champs got me all fired up again and eager to train even harder
Here's one of Craig having time to spare for a beer on course. I will let you browse the flickr pool Simon posted about for the photo of the tatoo both winners got on the butt (Sean there are about 1,300 to go through).
stem.
