Race Report: MNMBS Buck Hill

Wednesday (July 28th) I drove to the Black Hills for a wedding. While I was out there I had some time to take out the Superlight. I found the Centennial trail close by; however, was not totally impressed by it. Maybe it’s better in other areas but it was definitely better suited to hiking where I was. I did get in some nice riding on some trails off the roads though – some really good rough rocky gnarly climbs and descents. Fun stuff!

That Saturday I drove from the Black Hills to Burnsville, MN for the Buck Hill race the following day. I’ve raced so many times here – it’s a really fun course! We did five laps on this ski area – I kind of like the races with lots of laps. More fun for spectators too! From the start I was feeling pretty good. Holding position well through the race and just being smooth – smooth is fast! The Schwalbe Racing Ralph’s were hooking up awesome and the legs feeling good.

Each lap started with a climb from the base of the hill weaving and winding its way to the top mostly on service roads/doubletrack which is perfect! There is a small singletrack section that has about a dozen of these little 2” round stumps sticking out where trail crews cut the path. They stick up about 4” and my front tire caught the rough edge of one and sliced the sidewall just enough for it to leak. I didn’t know this til I got into the singletrack past the top of the hill. Just after it happened though, I sat back in the saddle and rev’d up the legs to about 100 rpm and weaved though a small field of my competition and was gonna challenge for first place! I was feeling really fast!

Major bummer when my tire lost enough pressure and went around a turn and ripped it off the bead. I grabbed my pump from my Camelback and pumped up til I heard the bead snap back in then hopped on….about 300 yards further up the trail, same story…more air…had to do this 4 times total on the last lap. I went from challenging for first all the way back to 5th place and ~5 minutes back by the end. Found the slice the next day.

Back to Omaha that night…lots of driving!!