May 28, 2010

Tour de Peanut Butter

The crew headed to Spencer, WV for the Tour de Lake this past weekend. The weather that day was pretty good, no rain and pretty hot. The problem was the rain that they had on Saturday......just enough to turn the trails into a 10 mile loop of peanut butter mess. The trails were narrow, slippery and full of roots, this made for a very technical course and a great race. I got off to a slightly better start this race, I have had problems starting strong that have left me playing catch up for most of the races. This time I was a little stronger in the beginning and possible payed for it with a slower second half of the course. 3/4 thru the race I had worked my way to 3rd place in the beginner class and could here a ride closing on me. He caught me with about a mile left and passed me only to crash on a slippery root 100 yards after the pass. After this I was able to hold him off after a quick decent and a sprint across the dam to the finish, I managed to be about 5 second ahead of him for a 3rd in the men's beginner class.

William had a strong race even though the mud is his worst enemy, being his least favorite race conditions. He came across the line in 1st place for the Sport Masters. Dennis also was strong with a 4th place finish in the Sport Vet class. For an interesting story, ask him about the rider he came up on that was taking a dump on the trail...........Dennis has the worst luck!!

May 13, 2010

Mountwood..........RAIN FEST!!

Dennis, William and I made the trip to Mountwood for the WVMBA points race #2 for the season. Weather was pretty good as we left Logan and went downhill from there. Just outside of Charleston it began to rain and continued pretty much the entire day. As we arrived at the park the rain was pretty steady and we knew we would be in for a wet day. As the race started I got off to a very slow start and just could not get the pedals turning as fast as I needed to. About half way thru the race I began feeling pretty good and managed to pass 6 or 8 riders and finished 2nd in the beginner class......pretty happy with that result given all the mud. Dennis and William rolled out in the sport vet and masters classes respectively and had pretty good runs. William was plagued by a long delay to fight his chain as it was hung from chain suck, almost to the point of giving up he managed to free it and finished 3rd in his class. Dennis finished about 4 minutes behind him to secure 6th in the vet class. Both suffered brake failure, a common comment heard at the finish line. All in all a petty fun race, defiantly a course I would like to ride again in dryer conditions. Next race that we will b attending will be the WVMBA #3 in Bluefield this weekend.

Hope to see you there!!!!