Curse at the Crab

I finally got to my first race in NC. Curse at the Crab is a six hour race, part of a local Fat Tire Fest. 3-9pm, which meant the last 2 hours were in the dark. Sweet course for this sort of race. Twisty, lots of roots, good flow, and not too much elevation. Not unlike Bur Oak, I suppose, but more climbing and less tight. Just over 11 kms per lap. And only 20 min. from our place. I raced in the singlespeed class. There were 9 of us. It started out pretty good. After 4 laps, I was 2nd. I got passed when I was struggling to get my light mounted and to find the tylenol for my aching back. I never caught up, but managed to stay in 3rd for the next couple laps. And then it got dark. Apparently something has happened to my light. It wasn't great to begin with, but now it seemed to cast as much light as a pair of MEC turtle lights. And it kept cutting in and out. When you're dodging trees and it cuts to black, that's not good. All of a sudden my 40 min. laps were over an hour. Finished lap 7, still in 3rd, 10 min. before the cutoff, so had to go out again. Got caught and passed by another ss'er about a third of the way through. Damn. And then another one, but it turns out he was the leader and was lapping me. So still 4th. Finally managed to grab the wheel of a dude with decent lighting and managed a faster pace to the end. 8 laps. 4th place. Good times. Results here.







Earlier in the day, J-man had a blast at the Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day festivities. Harlan Price is real fast, and a really cool guy too.