My goal was to finish behind Tristan. After him, it's really the rest of us. Had a great start behind him and Travis Brown and Kyle
Jacobsen. I rode really strong but my bike handling skills left
alot to be desired. First half of the course was dry and bumpy, back of the course was a hill, downhill and some off camber in wet grass and mud.The barrier was uphill and felt pretty high so remount was tricky. The race did not go how I wanted to but I think I learned a little bit about tire selection in mixed conditions for next time.
photo by offonstI
pre rode twice, once with Challenge
Fango 34 in front and
Grifo 32 in rear, then the next ride
Grifo 32 x 32. I should have used the former but I thought the more aggressive tread would slow me down uphill. My cornering in this section was slow and I lost my front wheel 4-5 times. On the uphill barrier run up, lost my pedal engagement a couple of times with the mud. Every time I lost contact with Tim I was able to catch him but I made too many mistakes to place ahead of him. Either way, he was great
competition for me this year and I enjoyed the racing.
In thinking about tire selection, the
Grifo is really dry condition only tire. I have the
Fango 34s but the rolling resistance is surprisingly pretty good, the difference is with a 34 I can run pressure 1-2 psi lower, it absorbs bumpy stuff in corners and on the mud sections and off camber the diamond tread holds the line more. I should have used that tire but I know for next time.
I am thinking next year 34s with the XS file treads, 34
Fangos and then 32
Dugast Rhyno for my tire quiver. On the mountain bike I tend to favor low knob tire with round casing either in 2.0 -2.2 and find the low pressure and contact patch allows me to rail corners better. Should be the same for cross.
Looks like conditions at Jingle will favor
Fango in 34. Usually mixed conditions or maybe it will be outright wet the first 2 days.
I should be helping Kevin pack up the bikes for Bend so here are a few pics from Sunday's fun. Top picture by Rusty. Bottom pictures by Cecile R.
(And yes, I still think the knee sock look is so UGLY and UNFLATTERING, but I was being festive!)
