It's my first Cat 3's race and I'm nervous. It's a great course for me, a fast grass start into two 180 degree corners with a set of barriers after the second, which comes out into a long uphill tar section leading into some more high speed technical grass sections, after that there is a very steep short ride-able hill that comes back down into a sand pit. the course climbs up and around a hill and comes back down, does a flat drag around a field Into a uphill barrier right before a downhill 180. It then goes into a series of about a half dozen of S-turns right before the tar finish.
There is about four really good 3's in this field, and while there is three top riders that are not here, the concept of racing against them is intimidating. The start is very fast. much faster than any start I have ever been in, and I drop back to the 20's. I come around the two 180's aggressively and gain spots. throughout the rest of the course I slowly gain positions, until halfway through the second lap I am 6th place. then on the third lap disaster strikes. I am coming up the hill and I fall over, which pushes my chain into my spokes. I take a quick look at it and know that I cannot do anything, so I pick up my bike and start to run to the pit, which luckily is a short distance away. I numbly watch the hordes of racers go by me, it's a good thing I was in a state of shock, as I did everything efficiently and did not panic. I switched bikes in the pit and got going again, almost dead last.
The rest of the race I slowly clawed my way back up 24th place. My lap times were never as fast again, But my second lap was faster than the guy who won. I felt I could have kept that up, and while I probably would not have caught the top 3, I might have ended up top five. But "Would'a, Could'a ,Should'a", right? I might need to move up after mishap like that in the future, so It's a skill I need to work on. All in all I was happy with how I stacked up against the field, and excited for State championship.
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