These early season races are meant to be a learning experience designed to work the kinks out. Today was a perfect example. I DNF’d after doing a super man over some barrier to avoid the rider’s bike ahead of me, which had stayed behind while the rider kept going. The sad thing is I could have continued, which leads me to my first lesson.
1. Know your equipment: When I did the super man my bike took a hard hit and appeared to have broken the left brake. I looked like it was just dangling there. This will be my first year on Sram Rival and it’s been taking me a while to get used to. Turns out after the adrenaline died down the shifters have a kind of break away. (Intentional?) Regardless, I could have just popped it back in and continued. Bummer.
2. Ride the chain back on: This hurt me the most. My first biff into a barrier (It was all about timing) dropped my chain. I tried to manually put it back on. I lost 5+ places when I gave up and jumped on shifted up and popped it back on. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!.
3. Work on remount: Whenever it’s fast and bumpy I hesitate and do the little hop jump. Need to work on remounting with speed and a bumpy surface.
4. Work on the start: I was in the back which I can deal with but my start is still slow. I watched others move up quickly while I remained in back.
The good news is that I felt good, was well positioned and riding well. I was able to get on people’s wheel over take them and move up. I felt solid and in control, my cornering was fluid and overall I felt fast over the barriers. A good start to the season despite the DNF and some minor scrapes.
