First mountain bike race in 6 months or so.

Yesterday, I did my first mountain bike race since the 101 last August. ABRA had the first of their MTB series at WISP resort at Deep Creek MD. Mountain biking is tough. There was at least 3 points in the race that I kind of "quit." Like if it were a road race I would have just finished in the pack and called it a day, but on the mountain bike, you are either racing or quitting. Its also tough cause it destroys the bike. The course was rocky and had a lot of descending. I heard so many rocks banging off my bike, and at the two hour mark I would have paid money for chain lube. And it was like 85 degrees all day, with a sun exposed climb. I basically just followed wheels for the first lap. If somebody let gaps open or dabbed, I would go around them and aggressively prevent them from passing me later. I dont know what the mountain bike etiquette is. In my mind, in a cross or mtb race, if somebody is riding worse than you, they should be behind you. By the last lap it was just me and Dylan from the Scott Pro team. He is like 12 years old or something and literally weighs 120. It was possibly the first time I had to ride my brakes behind somebody on descents. I think I was out riding him a bit in the technical stuff, but I knew that I was in for it on the 2-3 mile climb up to the finish. With 3 miles to go the kid missed a turn. It was the THIRD TIME we went through that section. I called out and slowed down so he could catch back up. It would have been more embarrassing if he had missed a turn, turned around and still beat me, which was likely given that I couldnt climb out of the saddle on the hill. So he dug a bit and dropped me, built a good gap and held it. I rolled in for 2. I cant believe dudes race that hard every weekend, and do that much damage to their bikes every weekend. Mind blowing. Garmin Link to the race. It is neat to see the time splits on it. The first lap felt SOOOOO fast, but in retrospect it wasnt that much faster. I would really like to see the power file for a MTB race, I really think that I can suffer so much more.

Check out the temp. High at beginning is from being in the sun. The other spikes in the middle were the sun exposed climb, so the hottest points were also the slowest. Brutal.