Dino Series French Lick XC Race Report

Despite, or because of, the incredibly suggestive name, the French Lick XC race was a great experience. With 4(!) Rouges in the races that day, we were well represented by both Haliori, Kirk Grynwald and myself, plus pseudo-rogue Joe Czerwonka.
Lots of black and white to go with the black and blue that was coming.

I spent the night before preloading w Gin and Tonic @ the track to help get ready for the heat.

Temps were in the 90's and pairing that with a muddy course made for a large output of wattage as my body tried to cool itself by pouring sweat while I slogged up muddy hill after muddy hill. That's the bad part, and all of the bad part. I'd like to get that out of the way first, because the Dino Series is really well put together. Everything was organized, on-time and laid out perfectly. In other words, even schlubs like me got to race on a course that was really PRO.

We were sent off in waves w me, Kirk and Chris Halioris representing in the "old and slow" cat. This was my first XC race and I learned that you really have to get to the woods at the front or pay the penalty. I went off slowly and paid it in terms of having to pass a number of people just to maintain pace. The extra output from having to pass, the mud and the heat had me fairly blown up by mid race. Another lesson learned about pacing, right? I dismounted and walked it up a hill section and got enough water and air to feel recovered just in time to hit a fire road section that was fast and flowy. I finally got to put it into the big ring and make some time up.

I ended up finishing in the middle overall and 10th in the Cat3 40-49(old n slow) and was pretty happy with that. Kirk was 5th in our cat(nice!) And much further up in the overall.

A good start and proper pacing(and less than triple digit temps??) And I think I can definitely improve on this.

In the end, it was a beautiful course, a fun race and a great day to be on the bike. Not a bad intro to the XC side of mtn bike racing.