Tamo Dirt Classic

[Amanda Borden]

I suppose I didn't go into this race with the highest confidence after busting my ass to avoid a last place finish in my first two Cat. 1 races. I admit I waited till the deadline to sign up. I did, however, pre-ride most sections of the race course prior to the race day and that really did make a difference for me. Being relatively new to riding and especially to the technical aspect of it, I am really glad I had the switchbacks down before I was racing around on Sunday. That being said I still had a couple close calls with all that adrenaline and ultimately had a race-ending crash near the end of Serpentine on my second lap. My bruised & scraped legs seem to indicate something worse than I remember but worst was the force on my wheel which bent my rim into a 'taco'. It was a hard decision to make - whether or not to keep going. I think inexperience led me to be conservative and quit lest I jeapordize the condition of my rotor, etc. I have to say the first lap felt horrible and I had started to consider what the hell I was doing out there. But I reminded myself that I often feel like that during the first part of a race and sure enough before my crash I had started to feel pretty strong. By then I had put two Cat. 1 women behind me including the one in my age group that ended up 'winning' (aka she was the only one that finished in my group). Mostly I'm disappointed that I couldn't put up a time for comparison with all the other 3 lappers since... that would have been an interesting tool but I guess there's always next time!

And now I get to order a new wheel set! :)