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Fresh kit for 2013! Thanks to Alchemist for the jersey design and Gettysburg Bicycle!
The first race of the season is officially in the books, and I can say that I am excited about how well everything has turned out. Without being able to ride as much as I have in past years I wasn't too sure of where I would possibly end up on the results board. The first day of racing on Saturday was a short 0.7 mile Super D run. Luckily I was able to scout out the course a week ahead of time and complete a couple of runs and knew what to expect. What I did not expect was a fresh 3-4 inches of snow that covered the steepest section of trail, which turned out to also be the majority of the course. Under these conditions I considered the course to be pretty much unrideable as the snow cover on top of a 50% grade would be more suitable for things like sledding. However this did not stop me from giving it a go by riding, sliding, scooting, and running to the bottom as safely as I could. Without any injuries or falls I was fresh and ready for the 4 hour race the next day, which was only about a mile away from the Super D, but somehow was spared from the recent snow storm.
With zero snow cover the 4 hour course was much more rideable with lots of climbing (1,000' per 6 mile lap), mud, and a few technical sections including one long fresh cut boulder field. On the first lap I felt really strong and took to the front and pushed the pace until only myself, Rob Spreng, Jeremiah Bishop, and another rider remained in the lead group. On our way through the first lap the adrenalin was pumping a little extra as I almost cleaned "the" rock garden minus a couple of dabs. As the race progressed, we settled into a more casual pace to meet the demands of the terrain and stuck together until around lap 3 where Jeremiah picked up the pace a little with Rob in tow. This left me in no man's land in third place without any chasers in site. I continued to push a steady pace and pushed it a little harder in the singletrack to minimize my time deficit. On lap 5 I caught back up to Jeremiah who was struggling with some unusual helmet difficulties on the side of the trail. Rob was still off in the distance, so I continued on hoping that I may get lucky enough to catch him by the end. As I entered lap 6 I knew I was going to be finishing close to the cut off time to go out for additional lap. The fatigue had really started to settle in and at this point I would have done anything to make it my last lap. As I dug deep to finish lap 6 I found myself going out for the inevitable 7th lap which turned out to be no less painful than the previous 6 miles. Crossing the finish line I took 2nd for the day and was the only other racer besides Rob to put in 7 laps. For now it will be a few weeks off and then the Michaux Off-Road Weekend with another Super D and 4 hour endurance race. Bring on the suffering!
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