DFL – my finishing position tonight. The opening race of the Wednesday mountain bike night series. I felt fine, worked hard and my lap times were as fast as I ride the course, but I was dropped like a hot rock. I finished 11 minutes behind the winner….
An “Easter-y” 3 hour ride in Harbison State Forest.
Sean and I won our first USTA League match playing together. My first time playing on clay since the early 1990s?
After the match, I headed to the woods for a couple of hours.
Curse at the Crab. I raced the 3 hour solo men 40+ open category. The race at Lake Crabtree in Morrisville is awesome, fast and flowing, I averaged around 10mph so I finished 5 laps for 30 miles total in just under the 3 hours, I have no idea where I placed, no results have been posted, but I had a blast! Results: 8th of 24 finishers. I am happy with that result in an Open race.
The Tacoma with the Land Cruiser rims with larger tires.
Why I like to pre-ride race courses. This is SanLee Park in Sanford, beautiful park with lots of trails, and rock gardens. After I walked the 4th or 5th garden, and launched off the bike a time or two, I decided I am not racing here next weekend: a carbon fiber bike, rocks and my skills are not going to work out!
Riding through a fresh control burn in Harbison State Forest in South Carolina
Over looking the Broad River
Warrior Creek Mountain Bike Trail.
Everyone sees the big berms, but this was a beautiful view of the single-track.
I had planned two laps of the 12+ mile trail, so I figured a touch over 3 hours.
Six miles in (exactly half way or in the middle of the woods) , I felt this.. a broken seat rail.
My repair kit was sparse, but I had wrapped my CO2 in Gorilla Tape, so I taped a tire lever as a splint. A mile or so later, I passed a campsite and jumped on the road to get back to my truck. Since the trail is almost 2 hours from home, I didn’t want to quit riding, so I drove to Walmart – nothing but big comfy saddles. A quick search I found Cook’s Sporting Goods in Wilkesboro. It is a very cool outfitter place, backpacking, paddling, bike, ball sports, they had it all. On the bike wall all they had was big comfy saddles, dejected I asked the kid working if they had anything else – he asked me if I wanted more cushioning… (how old do I look?) ummm no I want a real saddle. He said he had a box of web sale stuff.
A Giant Contact something was close enough, marked down, it’s a winner.
Back to the trail and another lap. Great day of riding!
The inaugural Mayodan Mountain Bike Classic.
I was happy with my race. I entered the woods in 5th place and was right with 4th until one of the bigger rock gardens, I didn’t pick a good line and was launched from the bike.
Luckily I landed on my feet and started the hunt again, this picture is when I caught 4th on the dam.
On the podium!
I was able to ride away and rode hard the last lap, catching 3rd riding home a very low pressure tire.
My laps times: 19:17, 18:50, 18:49 and 18:18 – negative split each lap to finish 3:23 behind the winner! My first MTB race in over a year and the first on the Scott Scale!
All cleaned.
My goal was 3 hours, but after 2 hours of tennis and the hike yesterday, my legs didn’t have it. Still a great ride and happy with my avg. speed.
I made a video riding a berm at Country Park, but it’s a pain to upload to wordpress.
Great 4 days, road ride (Fri), 7 mile hike (Sat), 2 hours MTB (Sun) and 1.5 hour MTB today!
