Back from a successful venture in Fruita. Didn't feel quite as strong this year, but managed to podium with a third place finish. Did about 154 miles in 17:07. I had enough laps to secure third without having to ride the last 53ish minutes, thankfully. I was pretty spent and could have managed another lap, but it wouldn't have been a lotta fun.Zero rain this year, which was nice. Also, the course was extended with another 1.1 miles of new singletrack. Good stuff, but irritatingly rough and dusty. Will be good once the track wears in. I cratered hard in the new section on my fourth lap. Total face plant and managed to roll the tire off of the rim, resulting in a flat to fix and a sore neck and shoulder for the rest of the race.
Overall, I felt pretty decent, but mid-morning started to overheat. Took a bit of an extended break to cool off and recuperate. Then, I went back out and turned my final 4 laps with Nordby, which was a fun way to finish off a good race.
Daniel had an awesome race and pulled off second place in the solo category. Tirpak unfortunately crashed an burned early in the night. Pulled out of the race with a sore back and neck. He spent the rest of the day wrenching for Jon, Daniel and myself, which was especially a godsend for Jon, who was having serious mechanical issues due to an earlier chain/cassette explosion (on the first lap!).
Thanks to the crew (John, Austin, Jill, and Tom) for making our race bearable and successful! Hope you all had a good time while we were choking down the baby powder dust for 18ish hours.
Comments
Turns out that the slightly longer laps meant I would need to change batteries every single lap if I used the tiny helmet light. So, I sucked it up and just ran one MagicShine on my helmet and one on my bars. I ended up having no neck issues, aside from the faceplant in the middle of the night.
Ha, I crashed in the same spot last year, augering in hard on my hip.
Nice to meet you and see you out there on the trails somewhere!
Brad