What went wrong?

It'd be easy to just say that everything went wrong at Jacksonville, but then that wouldn't make much of a post, would it? My emotional state is a wee bit better, so I'll break down what happened on Sunday.

I'd almost wish that I could say that I raced as hard as I could and got my ass handed to me, but alas, that's not the case.

The start is where the damage was done and the race was decided for about 85% of the field. This year the race organizers combined all the 30-something riders into one group, which made for a field of about 34 or 35 riders. From the starting line the course ran along the treeline for about 500ft or so before turning right onto a dirt road for another 2-300ft, and then you had to make a hard (emphasis on hard) right turn into the trail...and that was where the real trouble began. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's get back to the start of the race. I thought I'd gotten to the starting line with enough time to get a place on the front row, but everyone else had the same idea and I was relegated to the second row. As the whistle sounded the guy in front of me fumbled getting into his pedal and any chances of a really good start went out the window. I start working my way along the outside, making some ground as we hit the dirt road, and then comes the entrance to the trail. Imagine 30+ people trying to get thru a door as fast as they can...it looked like a bunch of monkeys humping a football. Riders were falling, getting tangled up with each other...it was a disaster.I waited almost 20 or 30 seconds to get on the trail. One guy who was right in front of me, was trying to get going and kept getting hung up on some roots, and when he did get on his bike he just rode off the trail and passed 3 or 4 people in the process. HELLO!?!? Course cutting is against the rules A-hole! (I'll remember you #140...cheating motherf&%@!*) That ordeal gave the first 4 or 5 riders onto the trail valuable time, time that would be almost impossible to overcome considering the course. I probably entered the singletrack close to the back of the pack (upper 20s or so).

Hanna Park is VERY tight and twisty, which means there are hardly no places to pass. There were a couple doubletrack sections and a couple of dirt road segments that allowed some passing, otherwise you had to ask permission to get by someone...and this is where things went from bad to worse. I have never seen so many poor sports in a race. It was like nobody wanted to let you by. There was one really fast section that allowed you to pick up some speed, but I spent that section in a friggin' parade. I couldn't get them to pick up the pace and they weren't too intent on letting me by. I tried every trick in the book. After pointedly asking to let me pass I tried a different strategy, I asked them to let me in front so I could bridge us up to the group in front of us. That didn't work either. When we'd come to the road or doubletrack sections, you'd think they'd let the faster riders get by. But no, they'd actually speed up! We hit a wide area for me to pass and I can get past one fella, but then the others would sense me coming by them and then they'd speed up to keep me from passing, only to slow back down on the singletrack so they could recover from that hard effort. What the hell is that all about!?!?
One guy in particular was REALLY bad though, and he cost me the most time. I kept asking to get by and the dude was ignoring me. Then a guy from another class slips by me, and I was like "I'd like to go faster myself, but this dude won't let me pass". This guy wouldn't even let the guy from another class get by. On the wide areas this guy would actually go out of his way to block someone trying to get by.
And that is how I spent the bulk of the race, trying to battle past the weaker riders...weaker riders who didn't have the decency to let the faster ones go by.

I finished 15th, 16th, 17th...I'm not even sure, and to be honest, I don't really care at this point. Being stuck behind the slower riders I couldn't go as hard/fast as I'm capable of. When I pre rode the course on Sat my avg speed was 9.5mph. My avg speed on race day was 10.1mph...10.1mph!!! When I came across the finish line I had gas left in the tank. I couldv'e easily done another lap, and that is what pissed me off the most. If I raced as hard as I possibly could and I was beaten then so be it. I gave it my all and just wasn't good enough on that day...that's racing. But to not be able to give it 100%, that's a hard pill to swallow. It really hit me hard. All this training and I wasn't even able to use it.

Hanna Park has no business being a race course. You NEED places to pass, and Hanna doesn't have that. The race promoters should've either A) split up the 30 something racers, or B) had a longer run up to the entrance of the singletrack, so the field could get spread out and not get log jammed. No race should be decided at the start, that's totally retarded.

Yesterday has caused me to make a shift in my plans for the remainder of the season. I had zero fun yesterday, and every race I've been in has been fun (and they weren't fun because I won. 2 of my 3 races I didn't know how well I did till the results were posted.)... fun, because I rode as hard as I could, and gave it everything I had. So, it's time I have some fun on the bike. I'm going to race at Tallahassee in 2 weeks and then I'm gonna be on a team for a 12hr race at the end of October and then that's it for 2006.

As far as the 2007 season. I'm gonna focus on mtn events. I'll do the SERC events that take place in the mtns, the NORBA Nat'l in Sugar Mtn, the Nat'l Championships in Vermont, and then I think I'll also hit up one of the NORBAs out west, and maybe the BUMP n Grind. I won't be doing any of the Florida Series next year, except maybe Tallahassee, since it's so close.