Big Ring Flyers/Green Acres

Two more races done, and only three more to go this season. Next up is the Crossniac's race which I am involved in hosting, then St. Olaf, then the state championship.

Two weeks ago was the Big Ring Flyers race in Hudson that was well, pleasant. This was my worst race last year, so I wasn't too stoked about it this year. It was the exact same twisty course too, and all on grass, so it was more of a cornering technical exercise than anything else. But, I was doing OK and having a fun battle with a quick little jr rider who I had 15 seconds on, when on the last half of the last lap my chain fell off and I was left in the dust as 5-6 places wizzed by. Oh well, I still finished stronger than last year!

Then this weekend was the awesome Green Acres race, that was a blast of a time. You can see from the slide show below, it started off fogy and a damp 46˚ but dried out a bit as the race went on. Not enough to dry out the mud though! A great asset for me was the large hill that started the race, which I was able to power up and blow past everyone around me. I do like those hills. They could catch up to me on my weak points later on in the lap, but I knew I could hold their wheel and pass them on the hill. The big hill lead to downhill slalom on a tubing hill (fast and fun!), then some wide spaced triple barriers, then off into the wilderness for some mud, grass, single track, more barriers, and high entry-speed sand traps that could take you down if you were not careful. I lost my back wheel on the rocky single track and bit my pedal into the hill and went down on the last lap, which lost me a spot. But I was still happy with my finish, which was in the 53 percentile, and a new record for me. My season goal of sub 50% seems to be getting closer...

Here is a slide show, with the first half taken by Megan and then some shots of fellow Crossniacs doing there thing, taken by me. Taken with our new Canon D7 camera, but that is another blog post..