After only two weeks of what I will loosely call training, I entered the first race of the season. I waffled about which bike I was going to ride, but finally settled on riding single speed. I figured getting a taste of racing single speed would help prepare me for the following week's Singlespeed-a-palooza race. The extremely important knowledge I could gain from this first attempt could show me how to rest at the appropriate times and push at others. (Insert hearty laugh, followed by a slight scoff [pfff])
The race took off, and I was somewhere near the back of the very, very large Cat 1 Singlespeed class. Then it was me and a few other fellas. We traded positions for the better part of the first lap our gearing was better in different places. By the end of the first lap my legs hurt. A lot.
Then the guy I'd been racing closely with got ahead as I eased a little to let a faster (geared) guy through on a narrow piece of trail only to realize four other guys were right behind him and taking advantage of the trail I'd left open. My singlespeed racing companion was now a bit ahead of me and I didn't have the legs to catch him. I settled in for a long ride in the woods with one gear.
As the race went on for three more laps my legs grew very, very tired. Too much gear on the uphills, too little on the flats. Guys just kept passing me. I even got lapped by the lead singlespeed racer. At the end I was cooked, my conclusion; racing singlespeed is dumb.
The following week's race was going to be dreadfully entertaining.
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