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Tuesday, October 07, 2008
2008 WEMS Series Runner Up
So the 2008 WEMS Series came down to the 12 Hours of John Muir with only 1 point separating myself and Chris Schotz. Going into this race the points scenario worked out in which I would have to win and Chris would have to place 3rd or worse. Saturday morning was absolutely frigid, just a hair over the freezing mark with frost turning the grass white. The start was chaotic as some straglers got to the line late and were coming at us as we took off on the short run to the bikes and after some confusion I finally was on my bike stuck in a train of slow riders in which a break didn’t form until about a mile into the lap. So upset, pissed off, and totally adrenalized I just shot around a corner and gave chase to anybody in front of me and that was my attitude for the first lap. What awaited me on the second lap had me a little freaked out as I did some good work on the climbs and started to get a feeling for the lines in the rocky descents that proved to be fast but came head on to a semi coming out of the woods after picking up a load of timbers....nice so here I was again angered by the hold up as I had no room to squeeze by found myself trying to make up lost time again. The 3rd lap I finally shed my arm warmers and keep on bringing the ruckus rode a smooth lap but with the cold temps and not much sweating it seemed like I was peeing every lap from 3 to 7 and after I made my 1 self sustained real pit stop with no update on result other than what I could pick up from people I would pass so I downed some ensure, slammed a 5 hour energy, took a couple of alleve to ease the pain. which may have taken about 3-5 minutes. I went for lap 8 feeling a little bit better and refreshed and lap 9 was a prep lap intended for anybody that decided that they were going to try and bridge the gap on me and it worked out perfectly. The final lap I stopped by the pits on my way out to drop the camelback and eat some blocks I saw what I found out to be third place go by at a rather moderate pace with nothing but pain labored pedaling worthy of noting to my memory for future use allowed me to begin riding so fast until my veins started pumping battery acid to my muscles and said F@ck it and did it some more on every climb and put the Turner into the big ring and kicked it in on the final 3 miles to put in a minute plus gap before the finish for 2nd place and over 100 miles in 10 hours plus not being completely destroyed at least not until Sunday morning was a plus as I had a 3 hour drive to deal with before I could get some sleep. Hats off to Chris for being such a great competitor this year. He’s a great racer and also designed the Underdown course which was a great challenge this year I look forward to some trail building out there this fall as that will be a good chunk of where I would Ideally like to ride next spring and summer. All that want to assist and ride some great trails are invited to show up and lend a hand on November 1st. A great season must pass in order to prep for the upcoming season as 2009 brings many opportunities. Maybe a race in sheboygan may be in order this weekend, but weather is going to play a factor in which I will pull the plug since it’s not something I “need” to do. We’ll see.
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