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Well I almost died....


ChrisL

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...yeah. The cat racing crowd is sort of famous for attracting enough people with poor judgement and shitty bike handling skills to make it life threatening.

I could never rationalize doing it for that reason, but I'm not real competitive anyway.  Too heavy to be a climber, and too careful to be a descender.  Plus I hate people.

 

Congratulations on not breaking anything, that must give you more confidence. :)

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7 hours ago, Page Turner said:

...yeah. The cat racing crowd is sort of famous for attracting enough people with poor judgement and shitty bike handling skills to make it life threatening.

I could never rationalize doing it for that reason, but I'm not real competitive anyway.  Too heavy to be a climber, and too careful to be a descender.  Plus I hate people.

 

Congratulations on not breaking anything, that must give you more confidence. :)

Thanks, I've raced before both in the road and CX but first time in a mtn bike.  I figured there would be stupid people making bad decisions and the main reason why I didnt want to do it.  Remember I entered to do it with my brother who was the last official finisher!

 

23 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

Well that's a bummer, but glad you're okay. When I did the gravel race earlier this year all the fast peeps were off the front, so I didn't have to deal w/ cluster fricks.

Yeah I prefer point to point events or big loops, short courses are sketchy as hell and never really thin out. Towards the end I was getting passed (lapped) by a the elite guys who were doing one more lap and those guys were flying but at least they were calling out and passing safely.

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5 minutes ago, smudge said:

How ya feelin' today? Have you had a chance to look over the bike?

Pretty good placing considering the crash! 

Thanks! I checked the bike thoroughly after the race and it's fine.  The nick is actually a scratch to the decal, the first character mark and there is bound to be more.  I didn't want to wrench the bars and saddle back for fear of causing damage so will loosen up the bolts and straighten them tonight.  

My left hip is sore, left arm and knee painful due to the road rash but I'll live. 

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10 hours ago, Page Turner said:

Too heavy to be a climber, and too careful to be a descender.  Plus I hate people.

I like this statement a lot.  People are idiots.

I'm glad it wasn't worse - hope you heal quickly, Chris.  Given the crash, I agree, 17th is terrific.

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2 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

Nicely done.  You should try it without crashing.  I hear that it is doper.

 

1 hour ago, Page Turner said:

...if you ain't crashin', you ain't really racin'.

OK so I have done 2 mtn bike races and crashed on both... I had 3 mud induced biffs on the first one and now this one.  My bro says he wants to do another one, I'm not so sure as my worse fear was realized, dumb ass sketchy rider taking me down.

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4 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

 

OK so I have done 2 mtn bike races and crashed on both... I had 3 mud induced biffs on the first one and now this one.  My bro says he wants to do another one, I'm not so sure as my worse fear was realized, dumb ass sketchy rider taking me down.

...you have to evaluate it on a risk/reward scale.  I don't mind crashing on an MTB at lower speeds if I don't crash into a tree and if it was something I did that was stupid. Learning experience.

But the whole business about racing closed courses with a buncha strangers just does not do it for me.  ( Really hate crashing at road speeds on pavement, even if it was my own fault.)

 

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27 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...you have to evaluate it on a risk/reward scale.  I don't mind crashing on an MTB at lower speeds if I don't crash into a tree and if it was something I did that was stupid. Learning experience.

But the whole business about racing closed courses with a buncha strangers just does not do it for me.  ( Really hate crashing at road speeds on pavement, even if it was my own fault.)

 

Exactly... The first one was on a big loop but it had rained all night and stopped just before the gun went off.  Total mud fest and under dry conditions I would definitely do it again as the riders were not tightly grouped.    

I was probably going 15 MPH when I got taken down the other day and the road rash on my arms and knee is still pretty painful.  Also found a few new knicks & scratches on the new bike... I'm leaning on no but part of me knows I can crush it.

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36 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...unless there are podium girls, I don't get the reward side of the equation. :)

Cmon man, I can crush 40 guys I don't know to get my name in the top 10 of a finisher list nobody really cares about!  This is a big deal! ?

Actually I'm ramping up for a mtn bike gran fondo and need to focus on endurance and long grinding  climbs and not going 8 miles of all out effort.  

 

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2 hours ago, ChrisL said:

Actually I'm ramping up for a mtn bike gran fondo ...

 

...:o  the gran fondo road crowd is every bit as bad as the cat race yahoos.  I know one guy on another forum that must not be named who was on some kind of gran fondo charity ride, got taken down by another rider (who was doing something stupid), and actually got sued by the other rider for the cost of injury treatment.  His insurance rates went up because of it.  Here is my guiding life principle : people on bicycles do crazy shit. Organized rides concentrate the number of people in a given space. Therefor the amount of crazy shit happening within that same space increases exponentially according to the size of the participating crowd.

I call it "Page Turner's Law of Organized Bicycle Events".  Note the exponential curve function. It's not a simple straight line graph.

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3 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...:o  the gran fondo road crowd is every bit as bad as the cat race yahoos.  I know one guy on another forum that must not be named who was on some kind of gran fondo charity ride, got taken down by another rider (who was doing something stupid), and actually got sued by the other rider for the cost of injury treatment.  His insurance rates went up because of it.  Here is my guiding life principle : people on bicycles do crazy shit. Organized rides concentrate the number of people in a given space. Therefor the amount of crazy shit happening within that same space increases exponentially according to the size of the participating crowd.

I call it "Page Turner's Law of Organized Bicycle Events".  Note the exponential curve function. It's not a simple straight line graph.

Yeah I've seen that as well on road events. I guess I thought it might be different on a mtn bike event.  I tend to line up at or near the back as I don't want to get mixed up with the wanna be racers.  I also avoid club rides for the same reasons and my only group rides are with a small group of guys I know and trust.

I do plan to participate in the mtn gran fondo so I'll let you know how it goes.  

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1 minute ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I know a couple of guys who once did IV saline hydration prior to a century. Now one of them was an nurse anesthetist, so it’s a little less sketchy than if you or I started IVs on ourselves and friends. But not much.

Yeah no ain't doing that.  IV needles give me the wilies.  I passed out during a medical procedure once the needle for the local did me in.  After the procedure the  Dr said I'll give you an IV, it'll perk you right up.  Went down a second time...  

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