O'Hill Meltdown

Today was the Observatory Hill Meltdown XC race down in Charlottesville, Va. This was to be race #2 of the 2009 VORS but turned out to be race #1 because Camp Hilbert was postponed last weekend until April 4th. Of course last weekend's weather happened to be seventy degrees and sunny both days but the trails would have been quite muddy due to the snow melt. Warm but muddy, I think I could handle that. Enter this weekend, with rain Friday night and then again Saturday (up to 1") forecast to continue into Sunday morning with temps in the Charlottesville area in the upper thirties. Now the O'Hill trail is on the campus of UVA. After the promoter stated that marginal weather would shift the race to the Tevendale Farm, Saturday night the announcement was made that the race was on. OK, but someone needs to define the term "marginal weather" for me.

Anyway, I drove almost three hours to get to the race but arrived on time and about an hour before the start. Another 63 racers pre-registered so there was going to be a pretty good showing. So the weather forecast holds true and it rains the entire race and the temps stay in the upper thirties. The trails were wet, muddy, slippery, etc. I think the conditions were as bad as Spring 2008 Twisted Tire with the exception that there were no trails turned into waterfalls. The laps were supposed to be about six miles long and the promoter told us at the start that they took out one flat section that was about a half-mile long because it was too muddy so the rest was either up or down. I did the sport race and it started on the road by the Slaughter Rec Center. We went up the hill towards the observatory and then cut off the road onto the trail just before the top. The trails were as advertised. It was very hilly. I think I would have liked it if it were dry. OK, my bike and I are not mudders. Our mother's weren't mudders. Our father's weren't mudders. We don't like the slop. Unfortunately for me, on one of the many leaf covered, rock strewn, muddy, white-knuckled descents on my first lap I had something happen to me that has never happened before. Oh, I've crashed many times, but not in this particular way. Like I said, I was picking my way down this descent when I saw a line where there were no leaves so I shifted my weight in that direction and then looked further ahead for the next line I wanted to hit when all of a sudden I realize that my hands are where the handlebars should be, my feet are where the pedals should be, my eyes are still looking down the hill for where I want to go next but my bike has decided to stop. So I hovered about six feet down the hill before my left foot, then knee finally hit ground causing me to tumble onto my left shoulder. Other than a small scrape on my knee I had no damage but the front wheel on my bike unfortunately get wedged or jammed into a hole or rock or limb and got bent. Every rotation of the wheel resulted in a loud clacking noise as the brake calipers slammed into the left fork. Of course, I continued the race and finished even though I took another header on a subsequent similar descent. The second lap was better in that I didn't crash at all and was able to ride some of the hills that I had walked on the first lap even though I was getting dizzy watching the front brakes go back and forth, back and forth. There was one place on the trail where there was about a four foot climb up what seemed to be a rock face with a tree on the left until you got close and saw it was a bunch of big rocks with spaces in between just about a bike tire width. On the first lap some guys in front of me had stopped and walked it so I just joined the parade. On the second lap I was by myself, or so I thought. As I approached this spot I was trying to decide the best way to ride up it when I heard a shout behind me. I bailed left and stopped by the tree and watched Jeremiah Bishop bunny hop up and over. I guess if I were a pro I could do that too.

I don't know where I finished in my race. I do know that I let a whole bunch of guys by me after my wheel was bent. It definitely slowed me down. Hopefully next week at Blue Ridge School won't be as bad weather-wise.