Worst ride of my life?
Some days you have it and some days you don't. Sunday, I definately did not have it.
Garet and I met up again for another assault on Binder. Rolling out, we noticed that the trails were near perfect, but the scads of leaves on the ground made it tough to see the trail at times, and if you left the trail, getting back on was really difficult.
Sunday, I experienced Binder. I mean I experienced ALL of Binder. I rode on the trail and off the trail. I experienced Binder with my bike, my feet, my shoulders, head, elbows, you name it.
I usually can complete a lap with out even dabbing, but Sunday, I must have crashed 5 times. Most crashes were related to my front wheel dipping off the trail and loosing traction in the deep leaves.
One of these crashes resulted in me almost crushing my left testicle (that tends to slow your pace a bit), and the most memorable was when my front wheel slid a split second before hitting this narrow ramp. Shortly after that, my bike came to a stop when it contacted this relatively large log (missed the ramp), but I kept going. I am sure it was impressive to see.
I was lucky enough not to get seriously hurt, and even a bad ride was a great time!
Falling
You only fell five times? I can remember when only falling five times was a good ride for me.
Seriously, when you can't see the trail for the leaves you're bound to crash if you get off on either the high side or the low side. The loose stuff will get you. Worse, if it gets you once you might get tentative and lose that 'flow' and start steering. If you do that - I know I do - it can turn a bad day into an awful day.
Mark Ewers
I may not be fast, but I'm 2 old 2 go slow
yeah....
I felt like a noob the whole ride...you know where your english is headed off the trail, and your find yourself contorting and kicking a leg out to try to pull your balance back toward the trail? I know that it was just a combination of tired/time change/staying up late/getting up early/not enough fuel/too much TSS the day before/ and perhaps biorythms were in a trough...who knows.
One thing for sure, I paid my dues and now that the bad ride is out of the way, the next ride ought to be really sweet!