Thursday, June 10, 2010

Down and Dirty - Warsaw, MO

Sort of wished I had gone to Tulsa to race, but it would have been a disaster. Didn't ride much the week before and didn't quite have the legs for anything. We did have the plans on meeting my parents in Arkansas for a quick vacation before we move so instead of hitting up Tulsa then AR, I raced some MTB race in warsaw that was pretty much on the way. Rolled in with 1 hour to start and got registered and began to warm up. Never ridden the trails there before so wasn't quite sure what to expect. Lined up with the rest of the cat 2 folks and took off. Settled in 3rd wheel into the singletrack. Early on I felt pretty good and was anxious to get around the 2 in front. Went through a creek crossing and my foot came unclipped and in that mix up got passed by a few riders. Got going pretty quick and made a few passes and tried to pass again only to body check a tree on my right. The tree threw me to the ground and again I lost a few more. Left knee took a bit of a beating on that wreck.

Eventually got around most of the riders and by then there were 2 off the front. Stayed like that for the whole first lap when another rider came up from behind to me. We started the second lap together but my legs were fading fast. He eventually rode away from me and I finished 4th overall in the sport, and 1st in the age group of not many riders. It will be a different game once I get the stock wheels on the MTB switched out. Those things weigh a ton. Volker got me a set of Stans crest 29ers which i'll run tubeless. Should be a lot faster.