XC races hurt, and this year's rendition of the Greenbrier Challenge was no exception.  With my first few races being geared towards either endurance or Super D I was a little unsure on where my fitness would be during a 2 hour stomp fest.  The Pro men's field was looking strong at the starting line with many of the local teams supporting a strong lineup including the Scott Pro Mountain Bike Team, the Stan's NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic Team,  DCMTB, and the Giant Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Team.  Having ridden very little this past week battling a busy work, school, and home improvement schedule I took an early lead to the front in order to at least gain a mental advantage over the rest of the field.  After making my way halfway through the first lap I saw that my move was a success as myself, Cameron Dodge, Aaron Snyder, and Ryan Fawley had split from the pack.  Cameron took the next pull keeping the pace steady through the remainder of the first lap, and then it was Ryan Fawley who would go off next demonstrating dominant early season fitness.  By the third lap Ryan and Cameron dropped the hammer as Ryan continued to attack leaving Aaron and I off of the lead pace.  Towards the end of the third lap I put some time on Aaron and found myself temporarily in no-man's land until I was caught by Ian Spivack and Jeff Dickey who were hammering along in search of the leaders.  The three of us rolled through the end of the third lap together passing Ryan who was having some bike difficulties.  We continued to chase on throughout the 4th lap, but by the final lap they had turned up the pace once again leaving me to finish solo in 4th.  Jeff wound up taking the win passing Cameron on the final technical climb with Ian in tow who finished 2nd for the day.  Stephen Cummings rounded out the top 5.  

The Michaux Off-Road Weekend hosted a series of fun and challenging fat tire events over the past few days.  Saturday's event's kicked off with a fund-raiser ride for Brian Fults, who continues his battle with cancer.  Brian is a really great guy and a true inspiration to the local mountain bike community.  If you didn't get the chance to make it to the benefit pre-ride check out  The Bulldog Benefit Bonanza.  Following the pre-ride was a Super D race down Canada Hollow, which is arguably one of the best decents in the forest, which offers enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes at all times, but mild enough to rip from top to bottom on any xc rig.  The splits were tight and I was happy to finish in 6th approximately 20 seconds behind race winner Matt Miller.  Day 2 of the Michaux Off Road Weekend entitled a 4 hour race which covered a highly technical 6.5 mile loop that would include 1,200' of elevation gain per lap!  From the start Rob Spreng and I tore off the front separating ourselves from the rest of the field on the first major decent.  After that we had sometime to enjoy ourselves before Rob would make his first attack by the end of the third lap.  His attack put a dent in my fuel tank, but also gave me some motivation of my own to lay down an xc like effort on the very next lap.  Unable to separate myself from Rob, the two of us ramained close together until Rob made a small gap on me at the end of the 4th lap.  The distance would continue to grow between us on the following two laps which left me in 2nd place for the day.  It was a great end to a great weekend.  I'll be looking forward to racing my first XC race of the year next weekend at Greenbrier State Park.