11.10.09 - JCF#7: Hakusan - Finishing It Off
It's been a long season in Japan, twice as long as the Aussie season. There have been many ups and downs (mostly ups), but the end of the season always gets tough. Which is why I was happy to be holding the JCF Series lead going into the last race at Sena.
While my form hasn't been good and I've struggled with some health problems, my energy was up for the weekend. All the riders on my teams have faced some challenges this month. And, relatively, my situation was good. I could ride the bike with no major problems. So my aim was to do the job and finish top 5, then hopefully win the series.
Typical on/off mountain weather kept us guessing whether we'd have a dry race or not. But in the end we decided to forget about it and just commit to riding hard and doing what we needed to have fresh legs. With the typhoons in Hyogo the week leading up, riding was limited. So it was actually nice to just ride on the course and enjoy the singletrack.
The Sena course wasn't so technical in the true sense. It was a 'point and shoot' style course, with no real cornering or challenging sections. Although one drop up the back was proving tricky once the rain hit. A few riders were worried about coming off, some running it.
While some riders were winding down (like me), some were building up to either the Asian Championships next month, or the cyclo-X season from next week. Even Tsujiiura was racing a CX race the day after this XC! So I was expecting the pace to be melow. Especially since we were doing 7 laps of a bumpy and lumpy course. But after a few practise laps, I was comfortable enough with each section.
We had our Korean friend and team mate Sanghoon visiting from across the sea. He and his other friend and his manager added some spice to the Trek/Gary Fisher camp. It was a great weekend on and off the bike. Everyone was positive and looking forward to racing. Knowing I had a long break after the race also helped motivate me to finish off the season with a good race.
On race day the ground was wet, but the sky was clear. We all loaded up on pasta and olive oil, then went out for our standard warm up. As usual, the start callup came quickly and we got set to hurt. I felt ok, but wanted to hold back. Even so, I led the race off the start and up the first climb. I didn't want to do this, but it took a while before riders wanted to pass. I didn't feel comfortable leading with my bad conditioning, so I was happy to take 2nd place into the first downhill section. The forest was amazingly dark, so it was hard to see. This and my lack of recent mountain biking, led me to slip on a corner and leave a gap. Not a good start, but I kept cool and maintained my pace.
By the time we reached half way I wasn't feeling any better. Stiff and no rhythm. But I kept pushing. Not too hard though, as I didn't want to 'blow up', go to far back, and lose the series. I paced myself and kept laps times consistent. This paid off in the end, as I held onto 4th place, not far off the podium.
Given how I felt, it was a hard day. I wasn't going fast, but it was enough to win the J-Series and lead the Japan national points rankings. After a great first half of the season, this was an ok end. It's hard to win all year. Including in Australian races, this season's been a podium in every race I've entered, except for 3. So it's been good. Now it's time for a rest, packing, saying 'sayonara' to my friends here, going back to Australia, then planning for next year. I hope next year involves Japan. It's better every time I visit!
