Back from Mt. Snow

Finally back in Michigan from a great weekend of racing. There were lots of Michigan racers out there and it was good to hear lots of friendly voices around the course. The racing started off for Justin and I on Friday for the semi-pro XC. We both had a bit of a rough start off the line and had to really work hard through the large field throwing elbows up the climb. Unfortunately a rider stacked it in the first bit of single track right in front of me forcing me off my bike. Once I got back on I noticed the chain dropped. While fixing it, I watched in dismay as the entire field rode right by. Ugh! That misfortune made for a frantic first lap as I patiently charged through the field with good legs picking my opportunities. I covered quite a bit of ground from the dismal start and my race was looking pretty good. Well, that didn't last too long as a front flat at the start of my last lap had me off the bike again. A "quick" fix and I was going again only to be off the bike again 20 minutes later with a second flat midway down the downhill. Doh! I decided to try and finish it out, being the last lap, and ran the downhill - not fun in biking shoes btw. I finished the race running, no walking, across the line. Justin rolled across a strong 15th. Way to go dude!

The short track finished the weekend's festivities. Justin and I lined up in 90 degree full on sun blast heat for our 20 minute torture session. We were baking standing there at the start and knew it wasn't going to get better. We then proceded to pedal our bikes very quickly in circles around the start/finish area chasing other guys doing the same thing trying to remember how to breath and keep it upright. I was towing a chase group for a little while until they all decided to attack me and I got shelled off the back. Bye bye. Justin finished with that group finishing a strong 7th while I rolled right behind in 12th. However, the highlight of the short track was watching the pro men's race. Ryan Treefarm of Kona Les-Gets threw the smack down on a world class field complete with top Euro riders in town. A second lap attack sprung him as he rode the entire race solo winning by over 30 seconds. That was impressive!!