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Harry Shaw, 13, found the race to be "brutal", although he enjoyed it. He says this was his first "official" xc mtb race although he raced once before at what he thinks was the short-track at Beezly Burn. He feels even though riding with his dad, Henry, at South SeaTac prepared him for the technical aspects of the course, he needs work on improving his endurance. Harry ended up with a small abrasion on his leg which he was quick to point out was not due to a crash but instead was from his foot slipping off his pedal. His only encounter veering off course was on the last lap on the last left-right-right combo where he went slightly wide on the sharp left turn, glancing off huge stump on the right, which changed his trajectory enough to bump him back on course so he managed to make it right around the last tree and finish in style in front of the crowd. Harry claims "it was all good!"
Allan liked the course finding the only part
he dreaded was the deep muddy section where each lap started and then just for grins we had to hit it again for the sprint to the finish line. This meant Allan, as the sole Team TAI representing us yesterday in the expert division, got to slog through the muddy 3-4" deep 1/10th mile in length section 4 times. Pure power Allan!Allan's son Erik also made it out to race yesterday, although we weren't so sure for a minute or two... At 11:00am the Sport riders were called up and Rory started the various categories. After they had all started, a couple of us mentioned to Allan we "thought Eric is racing today" and we "did not see him take off."
Hmmmmmm... Allan hops on his Yeti to locate Eric. Fortunately Allan quickly found him returning back from the car getting some gum. Eric steadily went to work on recouping his 2 minute (or so) deficit and ended up "passing 15 or 16" racers during the 3 laps of the Sports race. Mitch, our other Junior-level Sport racer, had a great race battling it out with Molly Martin of the Pedal-Mashers, demonstrating that in a race there are always mini competitions out there irrespective of what age category a racer technically falls within. Molly is very powerful and seemingly plowed through the mud trough section much easier than Mitch who was pedaling at a much faster cadence. Mitch still has the technical riding advantage over Molly and flowed through the bouncing pin ball machine sections a bit faster. It looked like Mitch was going to come out ahead of Molly for the 2nd week in a row, but on the last lap the cleat on his shoe became loose allowing Molly to pass him, making them tied in the series at 1 race a piece. This mini-competition helped Molly decidedly earn first place in her age category-her first at Sport MTB!
Sad to announce, but there was a casualty on the course...Chris L.'s bike. Somewhere on his third lap the rear triangle on his carbon bike failed. Chris is getting more than a bit fed up as this is the 4th frame that has failed; 3 times aluminum frames and now the carbon frame the manufacturer felt would be indestructible. Chris will have to keep us up to date on this saga.
So overall, most racers walked away with a favorable impression of the venue. It is one where the trails are well packed from much use, similar to South Seatac, but the course has limited locations for passing. The course did not have a fast-sweepy flow to it. There were 2 bridge crossings and 1 short log pile to cross. The tight sharp turns, especially on the descents, required deep concentration and fast mental calculations in order to proceed through them in the most expedient manner. Other than the muddy section previously mentioned, the course manged to avoid major mud and only included a couple more very short areas with mud.
Recap of placings:
Beginner U-18
3 Jackson
5 Harry
8 Bradley
Beginner Women 40+
3 Ann
Sport Women 30 - 39
1 Karyn
Sport Men 30 - 39
6 Zach
20 Chris L.
Sport Men 40+
3 Henry
11 Francisco
12 Bob
Sport U-18
7 Eric
8 Mitch
Expert Men 40+
10 Allan
See everyone next Sunday, March 8th at Black Diamond for race #3!
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