Race Report: Psycowpath Series Branched Oak Lake

Realized its been a little while since my last post! Life's been busy and full of surprises lately. Going back to September 11th I raced in Nebraska's Psycowpath Series just north of Lincoln. This is a fun course and one that I took first at during one of the weekly series in August, so I was excited to be back.

Well I definitely scared some singletrack gobblins away in Colorado over Labor Day because I really was thowing the bike into the turns. I gained a lot of time in these sections but lost some of it in the open fields...which unfortunately made up more than half the race.

I was gaining ground at the end on the leaders, but a 'mix up' in the woods with a fallin rider lost me some time and allowed a couple others to pass. Note: if you crash in front of another rider...you no longer have the right of way and should not stand up in the middle of the course causing the other rider (me) to lock handlebars with you sending both into the woods. He insisted it was my fault...I said I was racing and don't care what he thinks...I sprinted off and he finished 3 minutes behind me.

This race was longer too! Finally! Most of the CAT 2 races seem end with leaders around the one hour 15 minute mark- way too short in my opinion. This race added another 20 minutes on to it and I loved it! CAT 2 riders should be able to race for that long...plus you get a way better ride and workout.

In the end it was a solid race, even with the little mishap with Professor Crash. I ended up in 8th overall for CAT 2 ou of about 40 or so; and not far behind the leaders time-wise. I was more stoked than anything about getting my singletrack skills and confidence back.

I'll get caught up to the St. Cloud Jail Trail's Singletrack Escape tomorrow night....and the results my first 'open house' event for finding a renter for my house in Coon Rapids.

Riding Walker Ranch and Four Wheelin!

Over Labor Day weekend I did some other riding. On Sunday, the day after the race I went four wheelin with Dad again up in Central City, Co. Awesome stuff there! Nice trails and a realy fun ~1 mile section of trail that had steep grades and loose rocks the whole way ranging from softball to microwave sized to climb over. This was a challenging ride up on the 2WD I was on but with the right momentum and balance I got up pretty quick without stopping. Standing on the foot pegs, using the handlebars, and not using much brake I felt like I was riding a downhill bike on some trial at a ski area on the way back down again! AWESOME!! I wish I could ride this stuff more often!

That Monday I went back to where my accident happened in June 2009. The accident has been plaguing me mentally in the technical stuff since it happened and I haven't been as fast in the singeltrack sections of the races as I normally am. I ended up riding past that spot three times...twice downhill and once uphill. I gotta say I feel a lot better! It gave me a big boost in confidence in that type of terrain again...some weight has been lifted.

Race Report: Winter Park, CO

Last minute plans to race at 9-10,000 feet are always fun coming from about 800. All I really wanted was a good solid race again - and for the most part I got it. The course was absolutely awesome - long service road climbs, long technical rocky climbs to keep climbing balance skills in check, sweet fast and rough gnarly descents and switchbacks, and fast big ring flowing slingletrack! Awesome stuff! I knew I would have my work cut out for me though because Winter Park has its own summer series and more than half the riders at the line raced in those events, I didn't get to preride...that and I got SICK!

I woke up Saturday morning with nose completely plugged (started on Thursday). Always seems to happen this time of year to some extent! But I did what I could to make the best of it before race start at noon - I was not going to throw in the towel on this one.

Started on a nice steady sevice road climb for about 15 minutes and about halfway through the wave of 15 riders split in two groups- the chase group about a minute behind the lead already...and I was just off the back of the lead group about 15 seconds. With my breathing problems from my cold I knew the gap would grow wider from them...but I also noticed my gap on the chase group was growing also! That felt good and gave me some extra ambition to keep pedaling hard and steady and maybe some of the lead pack will start to drop.

Most of the race I could see some riders from the lead group but just couldn't close the gap that had grown to about 90 seconds. I did what I could and was able to muster one pass a few miles from the end in some soft singletrack and opened that gap on some downhill switchbacks (which are my favorite!).

One lap consisted of 14 miles and ~2,300 feet of climbing. And in the end, I finished right in the middle in 8th place. Was hoping for a top 5 at least, but all things considered, I'm happy with that. It was a solid run- the new Fox fork and Kenda Karma's made this race an absolutely awesome time riding.

Race Report: Maskenthine Classic

Last weekend marked my return to the Psycowpath series with a race at Maskenthine Lake in Stanton, NE. I finished 7th overall in CAT 2 so I felt ok about that. A preride could've helped a lot. I had never seen the course before lap 1, and that cost me quite a bit of time.

From the start up the short hill climb leadout I was in about 5th anticipating a left turn into the woods...nope...right turn sooner than I had figured which made me almost over shoot it on the outside while 3 ro 4 riders went by on the inside. I made some quick passes in a couple open field sections but quick punchy turns and climbs popped up all over the course.After several in the first lap I could no longer see the back of the lead group. I felt good but just couldn't get a rhythm going. By lap 3 I finally started to get the layout of the course and dropped a pack that had been starting to catch me.

Quick ducking and weaving is usually heaven for me on a race course...unless I dont know when its coming!

Change of plans for Labor Day weekend. Originally was going to race up at Maplelag Resort in northern MN (which is of the tight twisty kind) but situations arose and instead am now heading to Colorado so I'll race at Winter Park for a Mountain States Cup event. There will be a heavy race schedule now until the last weekend in September!