Good start, great finish!
Three kicks and the YZ was moving, putting me near the middle of my class as we entered the woods! During the first lap I did the majority of my passing, with good opportunity for alternate paths on the course allowing for better access to pass.
As far as I could tell, I was near the front of my class by the end of the first lap. Once in the woods for a few minutes, though, it's difficult to know if you're behind someone in your own class or one of the dozen-or-so others. With the constant need to catch, then pass the rider ahead, finding a good pace is relatively easy - I simply needed to "coach" myself to stay calm and eventually reel them in one-by-one. Despite this coaching, though, I suffered ALL of my falls during the second lap, when it seemed that I was encountering the largest majority of other classes to circumvent. Nearly every fall I had was the result of taking a compromised line (usually at high speed) to sneak around a slower rider. Even those that would eventually give way had the chance of taking me out, since I'd typically lose focus on the tight trees just ahead of them, knocking my bars on more than I cared to count.
After I was relatively sure that my class was behind me, I decided to pace myself behing other riders. Although I knew I could probably ride a bit faster, I was happy to stay on the bike and finish out my third lap without incident.
When I passed the start/finish I looked at the electronic timing board to see that I was correct - first place!
With this result I'm certainly more committed to attending the full series of races this season, hopefully with a few repeats of today's favorable result.
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