Joy Riding

Yesterday was nearly perfect weather and ideal course conditions for riding the Joyride at Sherwood Hills. Temperatures were low to mid 60s and the course was neither muddy nor dusty.

We had a good pro line, with 17 or 18 riders, including full time road pro Burke Swindlehurst. I was not sure what would happen there. Would he destroy us all? As it turned out, he had some derailleur trouble a couple minutes in that cost him a few seconds. After that, I did not see him again, but he was not riding off the front. Instead, it was Alex who was OTF, followed by Bart and then Burke. The narrow, windy single-track was probably a tough course for someone who does so little MTB racing, but I think Alex and Bart are significantly stronger than in past years. Anyway, fun to line up against guys like Bishop and Swindlehurst this year, even if I don't have a chance of actually beating them.

I felt pretty good but got passed by several guys in the first two laps. A bit of a slow starter as always, I negative split my first 3 laps.

Ty was the last guy to pass me, and I followed him nearly the entire 3rd lap, which turned out to be my fastest and most enjoyable of the day. Ty and I were fast in different sections of the course, so the back and forth racing was fun.

After lap 3, people started tiring and I started passing. I don't remember the exact order, but Ty, Reed Wycoff, Jonny Hintze, Cary Smith.

As I started onto the fifth and last lap I could see Chad Harris perhaps 20 seconds ahead. I caught him and it took a few minutes to get by, but after passing I was able to open a little time. I caught Brandon Firth about a minute from the finish. He was cramping and going slow, but when I caught him he took off and sprinted away, leaving me about 5 or 10 seconds behind him. BZ had a great race and, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Brandon and I, he came in 5th. I felt good about my race and finished happy.

Before the race, Scott did a "Mathathlon". He got a perfect score and won a IPod for his efforts. I've never won anything that cool in a bike race!