My first XC race - Turahalli..!!

Yet another one in the basket of firsts. My first XC trail ride/race. However whats the point if something spectacular or ridiculous doesn't occur that you can brag/shrug about. My mind wasn't as excited as it would've been had it been a road race or a brevet ride and I managed to get generous sleep before the race on 18th March. Opendro and I reached the venue at 7 and could see quite a big crowd. After getting the tags we decided to checkout the trail to understand it. We headed out and soon Opendro disappeared and I was busy chatting with team veloscope as they were on the lookout for a flat stretch to capture some stunning pics. After directing them I tried to catch Opendro but he was no where to be seen and just about 200mts from the start point I heard the whistle blow and then as I whizzed past the finish/start line I knew I just made the day for quite a few folks as I could hear the chuckle and was the laughing stock. I wanted to overtake as many as possible but it was a tough one as the initial part of the trail was loose gravel and mud and there hardly was any grip and the crowd was quite big and I had to slow down and shift to 1x1/ 1x2 and stayed put on the saddle only getting down twice to negotiate a clearance in fear of damaging the rear derailleurs. The first km is very challenging in terms of elevation and loose gravel. Moreso there were a lot of slower cyclists ahead and being a single track trail I still managed to go off the trail just to overtake them and the Trek 4300D exceeded my expectations. Picture this if you will, I'm riding a trail which has the legacy of one experiencing multiple flats and I probably was the only rider who wasn't carrying any backpack or saddlebag for any repairs in case of a flat or mechanical issues. The one thing I was worried about was the bottle holder (Bontrager)as the Btwin's would've been worthless in such a terrain. The bontrager held it snug while I managed to scoot over mud, rocks, gravel, weaving in an about, dodging trees and other cyclists. Quite a bit of confidence as started overtaking some known riders. The first 1.5kms is the uphill and the rest is mostly downhill. Starting off with half a km of dirt/loose gravel. A the steady climb followed by escaping into the thicket with some steep dips and then out on the flatland to turn around and head back into the forest. From here it was a fast section all the way till the finish point. One can experience the WRC style "bunny hop". What i mean is you ride a small mound at a good speed ~25kph and lift the bike up in such a manner that you land on both wheels in sync. Felt stupendously excited and enjoyed the thought of doing multiple loops. A sweatout session for the first half of the loop followed by the adrenaline rush through the second half. As I finished the 4th lap they flagged me down and I though my position wasn't even worth looking at because there were a lot of riders who had already crossed the line to finish a 5th. But later I found out that the first rider had already lapped me hence I finished with just 4 laps. The only number matters to me is, after starting late and 200 mts behind, how many riders did I overtake? I await the official results and till then here's somepics of the event ::

 The only guy (Vasu Mishra) who did the trail ride on a ROADBIKE !!!

Trying hard to overtake... waiting for the right moment...!!

 

 Yep probably the right time.

 

 The best snap of mine so far from Veloscope this season.

200 mts after the turn where I saw many guys fixing flat