May 10th, Lambert Park, Alpine. Icup #5.
Lambert Park race.
I'll start with the good first.
- The venue just kicks butt. The view, location, the course, you just can't ask for anything more. The weather was perfect too.
- The course, it was tight single track but 99.9% of racers I dealt with were polite & as long as a heads up was given, passes were no big deal.
- Again, it was cool to see some people we haven't seen since last year. As we start going to more & more ICUP races, we meet new faces, all very friendly.
- The UTMTB.com crew is a cool group of people, love hanging out with them.
- My wife finally won a mtb race!
- Even though I finished out of the top 10 in my class, I felt really good about it. The times from 1st to last were acceptable I.E. no sandbaggers. The way it should be imo.
- I converted back over to tubeless, ran 30 lbs & felt ok. It was tough to tell if I had it dialed as the dirt was hero & i'm sure I could of put 90 lbs in & it would of still stuck like glue.
The not so good but not terribly bad.
- Directions to the venue..............Uugh.
We have been to the Park before but we still got turned around. We arrived around 8am & there was no signage, none. We followed another truck that was lost & we stumbled up the Rodeo drive & found everyone. This was a common complaint. I had to talk a friend on the phone up into the Park because they were lost. GPS in the area was very spotty. So, a couple of signs on the road would of been a HUGE help. Tell you what, I'll volunteer to build & donate a few signs for ICUP to use in the future. I'm pretty handy that way. I'll build them & get them to whoever before the next race. Just let me know.
- I had 2 mechanicals during the race, the first one was a killer with about a minute spent fixing the damn thing. It's always something new too every race, chain suck up & over granny in the rear, NEVER happened before. What's next? My seat post busting off, lol.
- I hit a kid standing on the course, hard. Last lap near the end. I ended up running my bike up the final little hill near the finsh line. Please don't stand on the course.
- My wife complained about riders practicing on the course while she was racing. She was desending & a few guys were right on her ass. After a bit she slowed & told them to pass. One asked if she was racing & she said yes. The dude said they were not & don't worry about it. Well, having someone wheel sucking you on the dirt can get you off your game after awhile. Hopefully this stops. Isn't it against the posted rules?
On a side note, I thought I would try to impress my kids so at the end of the 2nd lap I pulled a wheelie for them, rode it for a while but when I put my front end down, I hit that loose gravel & almost landed on my face. Got heckled by my wife.
This was a good day for sure, good times were had & can't wait till Draper.
b.