WE 4-11 or 2 Races Bunches of Trail Work and some Training

Sunday started bright and early with a road trip back to Burlingame in Charlestown RI. It is about a 2 hour drive so Matt and I hit the road about 6:00 hoping to arrive in time for the TT start with some time to spare.

On arrival I set up the tent, met up with fellow coalitioners Kathy and Adam and discussed how much we liked the carbon rigs we are riding. I had never done a MTB Time Trial so didn't really know what to expect, other than riding as hard as possible from end to end. Well, that's really all there is to it. My only disappointment was that I had mounted up Kenda Small Blocks on advise from Matt - I won't do that again. Although he thinks they are 'Fun' I found them squirrelly and unpretictable which doesn't help much in a head sport like mountain biking. I resorted to dabbing and dismounting more than I would have hoped and only eaked out a 13th of 18 in my category - 71 of 110 overall kind of disappointing.

On the way home we hit up the Batch with Chris and Liam for a couple hours just to make sure we were tired before heading to the NCC party at the Northampton Brewery. That worked out just fine.

Monday Liam and I returned to Sugarloaf North for a resumption of cleaning out the deer runs we found and making them into finished usable trails - progressing nicely!

Tuesday I caught up on some other projects around the home office.

Wednesday Matt and I made our way to Earls Trails and put in a nice 12 miles with a couple thousand feet of climbing.

Thursday I spent the morning with GW working on cleaning out the ice damage on the bobcat trail at the DAR in Goshen all morning, and then met up with Bill Boles and PK for a pre-NEMBA EC meeting ride at Great Brook. Although there is no substantial elevation there, PK did a great job laying out some really fun ST in there. We rode for a bit more that 1:45 at a nice leisurly pace.

Friday - just a short spin since the first full length race is Saturday.

Saturday - the Bunny Hop Brook Dam Race. First race of the Root 66 season. A moderate rain with mixed in sleet and slush was falling from about 11:00 on. Matt and I arrived a little after 10:00 since the Cat 1s were scheduled to go off at 11:30. I set up the tent, then moved it over to where Art had set up his. The GT compound looked pretty snazzy for a while until the weather took over!

I had to leave to get Jeff and a couple of friends from Germany at school, so returned just in time to see Matt cooling down from his Cat 1 victory. Soon after Art rolled into the compound and I got ready for my 2:00 start. There would be over 100 Cat 2s starting and 96 would ultimately finish slogging through the mud for 11 miles. There was an uncharacteristally large over 50 class today with 15 of us lined up at the tail of the Cat 2 men's field. No glasses today since the rain would have made vision impossible rather than just blurry without them! I warned my peers that If I ran into them - it wasn't that I was being a jerk, only that I couldn't see. With that we were off.

Hop brook's course begins with a sprint around the North end of the lake and then a swing into the woods and up across a moderate side hill. All that sounds great, until you factor in the fact that there had already been the The Cat3s twice, the Pros 4 times, the Cat 1s 3 times and the whole Cat 2 field before we old guys got our chance at the hill. Slipping and sliding was the order of the day with lots of spinning, crashing and otherwise jovial experiences!

Following the uphill slog, is a descent of the same hillside into a sketchy brook crossing before winding up the road and across a field. 2 Years ago when I raced here, the field was impassible due to the mud. Although there was generally more mud today, the field wasn't too bad - you never know! After the field is a nice techy rocky climb which I cleared nicely on the tail of a local who knew the best line, I hated passing him on the next hill since the local knowledge would have come in handy elsewhere. Alas that was not to be. I began picking my way through the field - It is really a new experience for me - passing riders. Maybe it is the more rigourous early season training - maybe the superlight Zaskar, but I ended the day having passed nearly 20 riders from earlier age groups on my way to a 5th place finish in the age group - 61st of 98 Cat 2 finishers on the day - a personal best ever.

I really love this bike, and with the new tires (a Nevegal in Front and a Conti Spider in the rear) in place of the Small Blocks (and the stock Karma's), I was much more comfortable on the rocks and in the mud than last week at Burlingame.