Bonebender MTB

With the only road racing being in Hermann, MO a 3 hour MTB race in Smithville sounded pretty fun. Options for racing were a 3 hour or 6 hour race. Do as many laps as you can in the time frame. Since Joe A. is mending a bum knee I took the opportunity to steal his MTB from him since I don't have a MTB of my own. If you have to borrow a bike from someone, this is the kind of bike you want. Spooky frame, 1x9 gears with grip shift, nice set of tubeless wheels and tires, SID team fork. The whole package had to weigh around 22 lbs. Thanks Joe. I went into the race thinking I was just going to ride a good pace, stay within myself and have fun. I figured top half would be a good result considering I haven't ridden a MTB in almost 2 years.
LeMans start, got out really slow, near the back. Was pretty much riding single file behind someone the whole first lap it was so congested. Didn't really work too hard the first lap, when I came through the pit I stopped and added some air to a soft rear tire, got a drink and was off. 1 hour 6 minutes. Got out on the second lap with some room to ride and just started hammering it. Caught right back up to the group I was with but eventually made the pass. Was riding really well, went down once and dropped the chain another time. Came through at 2:08. Had lots of room to ride once again and was going good. Legs started to feel a bit heavy. Some cramping came on and dropped the chain again. Came upon a group of guys that included teammate Brad W. who was racing the 6 hour solo race. I had seen him after the first lap when he was about 5 minutes ahead so I knew I was doing good. Rode with them for a bit and by the finish line passed them all. Ended up finishing 4th overall in the 3 hour under 35 category at 3 hours 10 minutes. Was really happy and surprised. Britton was the next fastest a couple minutes ahead of me. First place was really fast and second was only a minute ahead of Britton. Britton did have a bunch of mechanical though. The way I see it, Britton should have had second and I should have had 3rd. Next year.

Overall good day. Legs were in agony after race. 35 miles of singletrack is about the equivalent of 70 on the road, maybe more. Will sleep good tonight.

Humble pie tastes like crap

Bazaar RR. Did this race last year, only in the 4/5 category. Did well. This year in the Cat 3 field. Not so well. The only disclaimers I will make are that it was a combined 1/2/3 field and I just clinical boards the day before. Other than that I'm just not in good racing form yet. I knew that going in and my goal was to not get dropped.
The race is an out and back one way and then out and back the other direction. only 48 miles total. At about mile 14-15 I was blowing up. We started getting into some of the rolling hills and the pace was too quick for me. Off the back I went. I ended up calling it at the end of the first out and back which was mile 32.

Will get some more riding in before auburn RR in 2 weeks.

Riding and stuff

Finally able to get a few good days of riding in. Weather has been good lately, although it has been very windy. Just now putting in some bigger efforts on rides. Did my first spring fling on saturday. It was a good day to ride, that's about all i can say about that day. My goal going into it was to just get a good workout. Wasn't too interested in killing myself or anything like that. Not much pop in the legs at this time, so when riders started launching to bridge a small gap I stayed. Thinking it would come back together I looked around me and realized that wasn't going to happen. Eventually 2 bike shack racers who were off the front, Kent Woerman included, lapped us and they dragged us back to the group.