Race Report: Mankato

This course has been one of my favorites in the past so I was excited to race here again! Unfortunately the storms forced a closing of some of the more fun sections of the course but it was still fun. This time the mud was awesome to race in. I’m excited to see some pictures from this race!

With 45 minutes to race start Sport riders were coming off the trail with fresh mud so I decided to change the rear tire, figured that should be good enough…and it turned out to be a wise move.The deep and widely spaced lugs really propelled me through the mud at the top of Mt. Kato – in hindsight I should’ve swapped the front also, but the rear was most important - 100% rideable course nonetheless.

We ‘Comp’ racers had to do four laps on Mt. Kato. It was hot and steamy out there but not terrible. The terrible thing was the mechanical trouble AGAIN on lap four. Same thing as what happened at Mont Du Lac. About a dozen times on that lap the cranks just stopped moving, but I was absolutely not going to DNF. It happened most on the climbs just after I downshift in the rear. I didn’t know what was going on but on the flats and downhill sections I could go without trouble…and when it did lock I jumped off quickly and ran the bike to the next flat or dh.

Not sure how much time I lost (5 – 6 minutes??) but with all that I ended up missing the podium by only two minutes! I was frustrated for that half of a lap until the finish. When I saw the results, I felt a little better with 4th place given the issues. Upon closer inspection when I got home, the bearings in the rear derailleur pulleys are completely shot. Also, I down shifted with a good amount of force on the pedal…and slightly tweaked a couple gears on the cassette. Oh well, better here than Sol Vista.

This was the last ‘tune up’ race before Nationals coming up on the 15th so I’m glad I came out feeling good about it. Riding this week has been intense and I’m feeling pretty strong. This weekend I’m off to do some more altitude training in Colorado – not sure where exactly yet…

On the Citizen Class battle…one did not show thinking it was going to be another Mont Du Lac type race. Looking like it could be the MNMBS Buck Hill race now before that gets sorted out…which gives lots of time for each to find new ways to trash talk and hinder the others training…and still with me and my gas can standing by – “John…Mat loves McFlurrys…you should be a good friend and get him a gift certificate to McDonalds” ;)