My Blog

In the final race of the 3 race TBF Friday Night Mountain Bike Series I took second place.  I finished twice in the second spot and one third which put me tied in the points with my friend Andy Klaiber.  He had taken a 1st, 2nd, and then in the final race had an off day and got 4th.  The tie breaker was your finish position in the final race, in which I got 2nd and took the championship. 

It's not that big of a deal, because Andy and I are on the same team/club.  And I know he could have beaten me if he didn't have an off race.  I've also come to learn that there is a comeradery in this individual sport.  Even though we're all racing each other, we all ride together and race together so much that we're all friends and it doesn't really matter who wins.  We just have a good time. 

About 200yds into the Prairie City race this week I pinch flatted the rear tire.  It had about 50psi in it too!  I pulled over to change it and must have ran over some star thistle because when I got the rear changed and back on the bike, the front was flat too!!

I only had one tube so I shouldered the bike and ran back to the start and got some tech help and tube to get me going.  When I finally got started, my group was coming around for their second lap.  So at least I got to ride with them!  I was feeling good too, keeping up with the front guys. 

The most rewarding part was that I didn't finish last.  I didn't give up, and two guys DNF'd. 

So I think it's time to try tubless so I hopefully don't have this problem anymore.  This is my second race with a flat...

It definately feels like I'm getting faster.  I'm able to hold my own with guys that have been racing for a long time.  Last Wednesday at the Prairie City Races I had a 3rd place finish in the Expert Plus catagory, which is pretty much a Semi Pro class.  A pack of about 6 guys stayed together for the whole race which made it really fun to jockey for position all the time.  Coming into the last climb I was about 50yds behind the 3rd place rider.  I decided to make a charge, so after the initial steep, I poured it on for the rest of the gradual climb back to the finish and passed him on a final sprint to the wire.  Then just about passed out after the finishing chute!  But it was a blast. 

On Friday night I had another race in Granite Bay, CA.  Those are trails that I ride with the Breakouts very regularly, so we definately had home trail advantage.  Myself, another Breakout (Andy Klaiber), and two Ride for a Reason team riders (Kirk Edgerton and Bob Delp) jumped out to an early lead and freight trained the field.  We all ride together and know the trails very well.  We had a blistering pace in the 100 degree heat.  I was leading the second lap and about half way through I think the heat started to get to me.  I let Andy and the other guys pass and just cruised the rest of the race to the finish.  We had pulled such a lead on the rest of the field that only one other rider passed me on my third lap.  They don't have the results up on the website yet but I believe I finished 5th overall in Expert and 2nd in my age group.

I'm having a good time, and it's really rewarding to see hard work paying off!