I apologize for the late post. As such I will just be posting photos my wife took with our camera, and a couple photos a friend of mine, Pong, took of me racing.
Notable facts about and what happened at the event were:
- HUGE delay (a planned flag off at 9 A.M. Actual flag off happened at 1:30 P.M.), but it was forgiveable, as the event was the first mountain bike race in the Philippines to use transponders to keep track of lap times and riders’ ranks.Transponder installation and on-site registration caused the delay. Lessons learned.
- A fellow PhilMoFo crashed only meters and seconds away from flag off. It was a mysterious crash. The rider, Rommel, said he didn’t hit anyone. His front wheel just stopped turning causing him to endo badly, at a time when they were pedaling hard and fast to get to the front of the group. After a quick inspection they saw 5 spokes were broken.As I passed him I started hearing him groaning in pain and his foot looked stuck in his tangled bike. When a bystander helped get his foot unstuck Rommel shouted louder in pain. Bystanders, marshals, and myself (the whole race already went ahead, leaving me behind but I couldn’t leave a downed rider without making sure the race director knew about his condition) were calling for medics but we were too far away to be heard.Then I pulled on my trusty coach’s whistle I bring for emergencies and used it to call the race director’s attention. Good timing, too, as he was about to let the Beginners’ category riders start while Rommel was still sprawled across the race track. The Beginners’ take-off was delayed and I went on and continued the race.
Precious minutes were added to my time because of this, but I know my whistle did a huge part in helping the downed rider, and that is already a satisfying consolation. Add that to a 22nd place, I think I did OK, in only my 3rd race, having only a few months’ worth of mountain biking under my belt (yes, I have been riding for less than a year only).
- Perfect performance from my permanent sponsor and crew captain: after the first lap she knew where to wait for me to hand me drinking water, and water to pour on me to cool me down under the damn hot sun!
- The heat, distance, and the Krazy Krew (my 3 little boys) prevented her from going to other parts of the race track to take photos and/or videos.
Photos follow:
Possibly Related Posts:
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- [VIDEO] Theo’s 2nd Cross-Country MTB Adventure Challenge experience
- 2nd Cross-Country MTB Adventure Challenge experience
- I-on Extreme track reading
- Cardiac Attack, an uphill mountain bike race
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