Amesbury Pigpile

Got to the race with plenty of time to register, kit up and pre-ride the course. Where did all the roots come from! The first off camber descent was claiming riders during the practice laps so it was decided that before to many riders left their blood on it, the course was re-routed to the second descent which was measurably safer (if thats the correct word for it). Started in the back row, right side, Right from the start, moved up pretty well BUT then there was a pinch by the first tree and some hay bails. I don't remember where the hay bails came from. I don't know what happened but wheels locked up in front of me, riders hit the dirt, my bike was sideways and the front of the field was gone. Collected my bike and got going again. I immeadiately knew that I had too much pressure in the tires and I should have been 5 psi lower, easily. I was bouncing all over the roots. THe barriers, I had good form getting off the bike but due to my HR being sky high, I stutter stepped the remount and a few riders got passed and when one rider when down, it put us further back. Yeah, Yeah I know...starting position is everything. Saw one ECV crash twice in the same spot, guess it wasn't his day. After the first lap, things were strung out and in the techincal sections I could stay with most riders but it was the grassy sections where i couldn't put matching power down. Third lap I finally got around mr motobecane red, he had a good cheering section, and kept going only to be passed by the ECV guy i passed on the stairs. Tried getting back up to him but he would pull away on the straights. I could only latch back on to him in the halfpipe, quick downhills and tight turns. The maxxis mimo's held their ground well despite being balloons. The roots really took a toll on my hands, I Gripped the hoods while in the woods and road in the drops on the grass when i could, just to break up the positioning on the bars. This worked pretty well. I really like the twistys, the section leading up the barriers, and the stair run up. I did have one nice bail out when I over cooked a turn, I refused to touch the breaks and the front wheel slid out but I ended up on my feet (I believe CTodd got a nice view) so I was able to get back up and going pretty quickly only allowing one other rider to bridge up and eventually pass me on the last lap. Finished in the back of the field somewhere, don't know where as I didn't have the time stick around for the results to be posted. I'll check later this week for an update. I think if I can hold a better start position and maintain the HR redline a little longer while the field sorts itself out, it will definately help. I think I can maintain my 178 bpm HR for 40 minutes, its whether or not I can hold 185 bpm for 6 minutes till the field strings out that is another questions.....a whole lot of "ifs"....either way, the race was fun, had fun, looking forward to the next one

Over all the bike handled really well. The frame is super stiff (laterally stiff, and vertically compliant-bikesnobnyc), the brakes held up ok considering one of the pads got loose on the post (shite manufacturing but). They will be swapped out for ritchey reds this week. The eastons SL's are still true and rolled really well. They definately lightening the bike up a bit. We'll see what i can do to get ready for gloucester, till then.......