Popping my Ouachita Challenge cherry.
This isn't my first race of the year, but we will get to those in a little while. This is the most recent race because it just happened yesterday so I will give my best description of the race. I raced my brand new Specialized Carve SL single speed, set up nearly how it came out of the box. I promise, I will get to that too. So, here goes.
So, Friday after work I took my brand new, never been ridden bike out for a short spin. I rode it around for about 50 minutes and just got a feel for how it wheelies. I came home, drank a beer, decided I needed to wash clothes, and got going packing up for the race on Sunday. I got a little bit of my stuff ready but I knew we weren't leaving until 10:30 or so on Saturday so I took it easy Frdiay night. Saturday morning I got up, packed most of my stuff up, cleaned out Andrea's car so we could drive to Arkansas and shred some gnar.
We got to Arkansas after much driving in the car. If you haven't seen it head over to Brickhouse Racing and check out how much fun your next trip will be if I get to tag along. Once in Arkansas I immediately started shredding the pump track and getting a little too loose on the pump track. The pump track is great, except I can do two hard laps and be blowing through the turns feeling my front tire try to roll off the rim. The bmx days of 60psi in a front tire have taught me to expect a little bit more bite and consistency in my front end than a 20psi 29er tire will ever offer.
After goofing off a bit, setting up camp, and me acting like I wasn't nervous we changed to go for a "preride" of sorts. It wasn't really a preride because we didn't touch the race course but we did ride some similar trail so I would know what to expect in the morning. We ripped a little, took it pretty easy (as easy as you can on a single speed in the hills), and went back to camp. After some replenishing of supplies and picking up our packets (because that's what you do at packet pickup) it was time to eat dinner and call it a night. Sleeping in a tent that almost touches the ground, while being cold, and listening to dogs bark through ear plugs is a bad time. Take my word.
The rest will have to come later. Now is time forJust Riding Along
So, Friday after work I took my brand new, never been ridden bike out for a short spin. I rode it around for about 50 minutes and just got a feel for how it wheelies. I came home, drank a beer, decided I needed to wash clothes, and got going packing up for the race on Sunday. I got a little bit of my stuff ready but I knew we weren't leaving until 10:30 or so on Saturday so I took it easy Frdiay night. Saturday morning I got up, packed most of my stuff up, cleaned out Andrea's car so we could drive to Arkansas and shred some gnar.
We got to Arkansas after much driving in the car. If you haven't seen it head over to Brickhouse Racing and check out how much fun your next trip will be if I get to tag along. Once in Arkansas I immediately started shredding the pump track and getting a little too loose on the pump track. The pump track is great, except I can do two hard laps and be blowing through the turns feeling my front tire try to roll off the rim. The bmx days of 60psi in a front tire have taught me to expect a little bit more bite and consistency in my front end than a 20psi 29er tire will ever offer.
After goofing off a bit, setting up camp, and me acting like I wasn't nervous we changed to go for a "preride" of sorts. It wasn't really a preride because we didn't touch the race course but we did ride some similar trail so I would know what to expect in the morning. We ripped a little, took it pretty easy (as easy as you can on a single speed in the hills), and went back to camp. After some replenishing of supplies and picking up our packets (because that's what you do at packet pickup) it was time to eat dinner and call it a night. Sleeping in a tent that almost touches the ground, while being cold, and listening to dogs bark through ear plugs is a bad time. Take my word.
The rest will have to come later. Now is time forJust Riding Along
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