sweat, flies and beers!

after drinking rather a lot of beer on saturday i didn't know how i'd cope doing a xc race on sunday morning but i turned up anyway just to have a crack at it and if anything, it would be a good training ride.
got there in good time with a friend, Pete and signed on, it looked like it was gonna rain and the course had been shortened quite a bit due to all the wet weather we've had. the course had been given a good flogging by the elements aparently and bridges had been washed away etc so it was shortened to around 6.5kms which meant four laps for B grade men. i wasn't listening to this and it becomes apparent later!
On the start line i was in a good position in the front row but realised i hadn't ridden the beggining of the adjusted course so didn't fully understand where the shorter lap took us! i was looking around at some Pro looking guys in skin suits on hardtail race bikes and started to think " i dont know where i'm going and these guys are at least ten years younger than me and they're gonna give me a right toasting!"
Off we went and i was fourth or fifth into the single track( at least i could follow someone rather than get lost! ) the group were really motoring and B grade got split apart pretty quickly.
now i'm pretty good around corners but i knew there were some guys who could flog me in a staight line so going up the first revised rough bitumen section i thought that i would never pass the leaders so was happy to settle in and ride with the bunch and see what happens. on the single track though i really felt i could have gone a bit faster so started planning my move. at the top of a shallow climb with a bit of width before some twisty single track i gave it all i had and passed three riders ( with one of them moaning that i didn't shout 'track') but it was double track anyway and i couldn't even breathe, never mind shout! i thought i was in second place and first had gotten away into the distance. i managed to make a bit of a break on the tight twisty singletrack and was hoping i might get a glimse of the first rider.
anyway, i spent the rest of that lap and most of the second by myself untill i caught Glen( a grade rider from the northern beaches that won b grade last year) and he told me that i was the first b grade he's seen which meant i was in first! i didn't want to get to excited as anything can happen in a race ( and it did last week when my tyre flatted due to my stupidity!)
Anyway, lap three and for some reason i thought it was the last one! Steve 01 was creeping up on me in second place and and i gave it one last blast to try and shake him off my tail and romp home to victory. i got to the line and almost pulled to a stop and asked if that was it? but the Bastards said i had one more lap! i felt like crying and nearly crapped myself! Steve was right on my tail and looking very threatening. he was powering and catching me quick. i'd made a bottle last me three laps and thought that was it! now i had to ride past my full bottles without a stop and knew Steve was on a camelback so he had no problems, it was as humid as hell and the sweat was pouring off me and i was thirsty!
Steve was right on my tail now and was really putting me under pressure. we crossed the bridge and attempted the techy climb which i didn't make for the first time and was sorry to make Steve get off his bike too! i managed to run to the top and get back on the bike with a bit of a gap between us.
i knew that this was the only time to make the move and i gave 110% to gain more of a gap. it work but i was hurting! i managed to keep the gap for the rest of the lap although i knew he was catching again.
that last lap REALLY hurt but i came across the line in first with steve about 10-15 seconds behind in second. the bastard really hurt me and i'm not looking forward to his return to proper form!
Thats, the beer and sweat covered! i've never seen so many swarms of baby flies (what i call midgies). it was horrible! we were covered in them and each time you rode through a swarm, you'd end up with a mouthfull! ( plenty of protien i suppose!)
Very pleased with my result and well done to Steve, Damien on his ss and Pete!