Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Lessons on the holeshot

I'm not going to say that getting the hole shot would have done me much good at the Hop Brook race on Saturday, BUT I think there is a lesson to be learned here. If you plan to be competitive with the front of the field on a course that involves narrow sections (read single track), you best get to the front at the start and not get stuck behind someone in the first tight section. This especially holds true if that section will be difficult to ride due to technical features and/or slippery mud.

Notice the group come through, then a gap, then the guy struggling to gain traction right in front of me.

2 comments:

Colin R said...

Yeah, getting stuck behind that guy sucked. In a race like Hopbrook getting held up for a bit on the first singletrack is ok because there's plenty of double track to move up on in the first 10 minutes, so you won't lose irreparable amounts of time. Coyote Hill is like a thousand times worse for this, if you are behind bad technical riders entering the 4-mile singletrack section you can kiss the front of the race goodbye.

Also, I believe the term is "holeshot."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=holeshot
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wholeshot

scycle said...

I believe you are correct, I debated on the spelling and was too lazy to double check. I see you got stuck behind me, behind him. To his credit, it was a bit slippery on that piece. Luckily with Coyote Hill, there is a rather nice climb to separate yourself prior to hitting the single track.