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Tales from the SRAM Van-Race Run
5 minutes before your race run there's nothing else you can do to prepare. You've run the course as much as you can, your bike's been checked over and everything is running perfectly. You're filed cattle style, lined up single file behind the starting wand.
This is where the nerves kick in the most. 1 minute and the racer before you leaves the gate. Your countdown starts. Your hearts racing, you put your goggles on. 10 seconds. The timing starts beeping the
5 second countdown. You explode out of the gate at full charge, firing through the gears gaining more and more speed. Just holding on you're free falling straight down the trail, suspension bottoming as your bike bounces on and off the rocky trail then its into the trees and back on the gas. You start to feel the acid building up in your legs and arms. The second woods section comes up and you can slow down and rest but only briefly. You flow through it smother and faster than you ever have. The ruts and braking bumps are robbing you of your energy and its only half way down. It's the middle of the course and you feel like you're gonna die. Your breathing reverberates loudly off of the inside of your helmet. The big root in the last woods section throws you off just like it did in practice. You come to almost a complete stop but just hang on. Whatever concentration you had left is thrown off. Going through the gears you wonder if your legs are strong enough to get you going again. You're out of the woods and onto the last section. Now your breathing is blocking out all other sounds and its all you can hear. You have to take your finger off the brake 'cause you can't hang on with just the other 3.
It's so rough now it feels like you can't hang on with all 4. Your legs are struggling to produce power and it feels like your throat is bleeding and somebodys putting ciggarettes out on your forearms. You can see the finish line now and gather all the energy left inside you to power through it. Its over. You get off and try to stand. Your bodys trembling as you struggle to breath and start to think about how your run went. Stupid root! Why didn't I pedal faster there? Theres nothing you can do now but wait to see how everybody else fares.
Adam Billinghurst
This is where the nerves kick in the most. 1 minute and the racer before you leaves the gate. Your countdown starts. Your hearts racing, you put your goggles on. 10 seconds. The timing starts beeping the
5 second countdown. You explode out of the gate at full charge, firing through the gears gaining more and more speed. Just holding on you're free falling straight down the trail, suspension bottoming as your bike bounces on and off the rocky trail then its into the trees and back on the gas. You start to feel the acid building up in your legs and arms. The second woods section comes up and you can slow down and rest but only briefly. You flow through it smother and faster than you ever have. The ruts and braking bumps are robbing you of your energy and its only half way down. It's the middle of the course and you feel like you're gonna die. Your breathing reverberates loudly off of the inside of your helmet. The big root in the last woods section throws you off just like it did in practice. You come to almost a complete stop but just hang on. Whatever concentration you had left is thrown off. Going through the gears you wonder if your legs are strong enough to get you going again. You're out of the woods and onto the last section. Now your breathing is blocking out all other sounds and its all you can hear. You have to take your finger off the brake 'cause you can't hang on with just the other 3.
It's so rough now it feels like you can't hang on with all 4. Your legs are struggling to produce power and it feels like your throat is bleeding and somebodys putting ciggarettes out on your forearms. You can see the finish line now and gather all the energy left inside you to power through it. Its over. You get off and try to stand. Your bodys trembling as you struggle to breath and start to think about how your run went. Stupid root! Why didn't I pedal faster there? Theres nothing you can do now but wait to see how everybody else fares.
Adam Billinghurst
Author Info:
Smithers, BC, Canada
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