The General GNCC 2022
Picking right back up where the last adventure ended…
A cold front came through Georgia, bringing tons of rain. I got to ride a few times during the week. I headed to the race site Friday. I decided to no pedal the track Friday since it looked awfully slick for my ultra-beginner mountain bike skills. Friday night, it rained extremely hard and the wind was strong. On the bright side, it stayed windy all-day Saturday which somewhat helped dry out the track. The quads blew a lot of the track also.
After the PM quad race, my crew headed out to Ebike the track. Less than a mile in, I ate crap in a mud hole, covering myself in mud. It was not fantastic. After the laughs were over, we proceeded. The track was gnarly. It felt like rut after rut, mud hole here, mud hole there. I felt like I was walking my bike more than I pedaled it. The sun started to set and we were losing daylight rapidly. We were around mile 7. Before we knew it, it was pretty dark out and extra sketchy with no lights. We waited until we got near a field section and started to cut back. Still sketchy and not the smartest thing I have ever done but we made it back in one piece.
Sunday morning, started out brisky. When I went to the start line, it was 25 degrees. The top layer of soil was frozen, making things extra slick. I got off the line decently, but was at the tail end of the pack going into the woods. I am not sure how, but I wrecked pretty hard, hitting my head, a few miles into the race and lost the pack. I drastically slowed down after that. The second lap, I clipped a tree sending me to the ground again, this time tweaking my front end. I couldn’t get it fixed so when I finished that lap, I had the pit crew fix it for me. The famous line of the race is when Rick tells me, “You realize you are in a race right?” When I took back off, I picked up the pace quite a bit. The mud holes and ruts got a lot deeper by the last lap though. I found myself rolling around in the mud, pushing my bike, being stuck, struggling to choose safe lines on this lap. I got stuck at least 10x on this lap. It was brutal. I was so glad for this race to be over. I made up some time, finishing 7th. First lap, I was in 11th. I never found a flow at this round but it felt like nonstop slickness, ruts, and mud holes. I am still learning every round about this craziness but I do feel good going into round 4.
Steve Leivan finished 1st after a dead last start and working his way through the pack. Colton Pratt raced his first GNCC and finished 12th in Sportsman A. Two racers in my pit crew also had stellar performances. Cameron Matteson finished 1st in A150 and Trenton Matteson finished 1st in Junior B.
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