Rider Diary: Rabbit Valley Rally 2011 by Garrett Gerchar

In this race I competed in both events the time trial and the cross-country.- In the TT I placed 2nd out of cat 2/3 riders 15 to 18.- I was the last to go off witch was kind of nice because I didn’t have to worry about anyone passing me.- I passed four people on the semi flat single-track section they where nice and pulled to the side so I had no problems.- Passing them I had one problem when I hit some rocks and my clips came loose and I got flung off my seat and landed on the very end of it “OUCH!!!”- The next problem I had was on the fairly technical decent.- I passed two people here; the first was nice and pulled to the side, the second was a different story.- I came around a corner and tried to pass on the inside and he kind of cut me off sending me in to a really rocky part, but after that he pulled over like the rest.- I then I was on to catch the fifth.- We finished the decent and then had to hit the pump track section of the course.- I gained a bunch of time on this section and from what I heard I was about 15 seconds behind the guy right in front of me. By the end I was probably only about 5 or 6 seconds behind, so considering we started at a minimum of 30-sec apart I had gained a fair bit of time. This was a fun race but need to tighten my cleats.

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Now in the XC course I was going off with the Cat 3 15-18, and the Cat 3 19-22 racers.- The start was pretty crazy, and for the first couple hundred feet I was behind Jacob then I passed him and was in the lead.- I was in front for a fair bit of time on the road until a 19-22 racer passed me.- I jumped on his wheel and he pulled me for a little bit. On the first hill after you turned left and started to head toward the single track, the 19-22 rider and I crested that hill and there were a bunch of cattle just grazing on the trail.- As we started riding down they started galloping away in front of us.- It was kind of like what you see in the nature films with cars chasing the wild boars or something. It was really cool but we kept cruising. We finally get to the single track and we crest the first hill and down to the next really sandy one and he gets off and so do I.- I was able to run past him and kept riding up the next hill. Curtis then catches us and he also passes the guy I was following.- Curtis and I then start the little descent and come to the crossing of the roads and start up the next hill.- With Curtis still closely behind we start down the road descent and I see this guy running along the trail, so I say “on your right” and he moves over.- As I’m going around him, I notice he-s the course marshal, and then he starts yelling, “you missed something, did you do the whole course?- and yes we had done the correct course so far.- So I continue the descent and reach what I thought was the end of the Lolly-Pop.- So Curtis and I did another loop of the Lolly-Pop.- I start the ride back to the finish way in front of the pack.- I was still pounding it as I get back to the course Marshall, and he tells me that where he was when I first passed him (which was basically very near where the start was) is where I-m supposed to do another lap.- I tell him that everyone is doing the two Lolly-Pops up where I turned around and so he’s like OK.- I continue going where he told me to do a second lap, but then he calls me back and tells me to just finish.- I ride to the finish and have a 56-min time which got me a first place “WooHoo”, but only because every Cat 3 men rider in our group did the wrong loop.

Garrett Gerchar