I had the opposite happen. My first ever race was the e-enduro at Sea Otter this year. The only DNS in the e-enduro category was none other than Brian Lopes, whose book I was reading at the time, but I spotted him on the start list prior to the race beginning.
I call it a win that the gap from 1st to 2nd was smaller than the gap from 2nd to 3rd. This was a really great video. You set it up perfectly with the narration. I was on the edge of my seat during the race segments.
Dude, that was an amazing ride. I always think you ride great, but that was a noticeably strong effort. Especially the uphills where, no joke, I literally wondered if the GoPro effect was faking me out and it was actually flat or, even, downhill! The separation between you and the rest of the pack starting in third place was eye popping. Now to the equally eye-popping separation between you and first…. Wow! Which leads to a question: I seem to recall you contemplating a racing career at one point. In your mind, if you were to commit to a racing career, what would you have to do to close the gap with the elite racers like Nick McLeod or Jesse Melamed?
That's a great question. The biggest gap between Nick and I was on Stage 2, which means that reintroducing interval training would be number one the list. Number two would definitely be going to the gym to strengthen (and reduce injuries), and three would be cone drills. All things that I don't feel I'll ever have the time to do, haha. And that's okay by me. 🙂
It's a good question for sure! Let me do my best: John Deer is an "easy" trail. It's also incredibly fast, and encourages people to ride at or beyond their limit due to its difficulty. It's also inconsistent, with each berm having a different level of grip and somewhat frequent loose rocks. This is a recipe for big, scary crashes. Speed hurts, and John Deer is the trail I've heard of the most injuries on Seymour happening on (apart from Boogie Nights). Boogieman is definitely more difficult, but that makes it more engaging, and it is also slower and more consistent. To me that means less risk, and less chances of a big crash of something were to go wrong. 🙂
I must ask because I see it on every race video of yours: Why do you guys use such a bad time measuring system? I mean it's so inefficient and prone to failure. You can easily lose a second or two trying to "punch in". Every race I've seen in my country and some of them are really low level amateur races had a proper time measuring system where you put a transponder on a bike and just go through start and finish.
It's a $5 race race completely by volunteers, and all of the money goes back to the trails. The NSMBA has been running fivers for a long time now, and back when they were introduced they decided that this system was the best blend of function and price. It's certainly not the best, but it is reliable, consistent and cheaper than purchasing a whole new system, which would probably require raising the entry fee considerably. tl;dr, $5 racing. 🙂
