This race at Iron hill park, located in Newark DE, started a week early for me at the pre ride, some friends of mine decided to go there a week early to pre ride the course to get an idea of lap times. We  were doing pretty good too, until the mega dip. The mega dip is a 40-50 foot dip shaped in a “V” that branches off to the left and right on the uphill. There were three of us riding it that day, Laszlo, Mike and myself. Laz went first followed by Mike then I right behind. Laz decided to go left up the steep incline, but decided to stop uphill. Mike quickly veered left and missed him while I decided to collide with him a full speed endoing uphill. This collision was at the cost of a rear derailleur. We had so much fun on this mega dip that we HAD to do it again. This time Mike crashed and it cost him new  set of handle bars. This wouldn’t be such bad news except my bike shop Genesis bicycles didn’t have the part and it had to be ordered. I told them of my up and coming race on Saturday, and they did everything they could to get my bike ready in time.  They promised it would be ready on Friday, but they actually had it ready on Thursday. Thank you to all those at the shop.

     Race day morning was sunny and perfect weather for racing. There where 21 of us lining up at the start for the 12 mile race. The course was tight single track with plenty of log crossings, some climbs and some wicked rocky down hills. At the start everything was falling in line, I got right behind the racers I wanted to follow and I was feeling Strong. We raced into the trail and about a mile in, the racer ahead of me lost his chain. I thought good now I’m in sixth place, right where I wanted to be at this time.  We rode hard for about another mile or so and POP, there goes my back tire. As I pull of the trail the racers start to pass me, fisrt my buddy Mike, then Rob, then Laszlo then Melissa. And as I’m swapping out tubes here comes the next class of racers, then the next, and so on. Ugh, this was so frustrating, all and all I lost about 8 minutes changing my tire. Side note, learn how to change tires faster. Anyway back on the bike and  my priorities change from a top 5 finish to catching my buddy Mike before the finish line. I take off flying down the trail as fast as my legs could take me. The next 6 miles consisted of weaving my way through the other classes and trying to get caught up to my class. First I pass my friend Melissa who had the same misfortune as I. Finally I see riders in my class. I get passed Laszlo first on one of the climbs, then a mile or so later, I see Rob and eek by him, but still no Mike. I press on as hard as I can. I feel the lactic acid building in my legs and my heart rate is maxed out at 185. With about a mile to go I see Melissa again, she has another flat, what bad luck. But I hear her talking to someone. I think she was talking to Mike, so I ask her how far Mike was up the trail and she tells me a couple of minutes. There’s just not enough time to make that up, I thought, but as I turn the corner there he is. His chain just popped off, so I took advantage of that and squeezed by him. We rode the last mile out together finishing 11th and 12th consecutively. It was a great race and a lot of fun racing with my friends. I would like to thank my sponsors Evomo, Fluid, Sixsixone and Motortabs.