Fluidride Cup #5 08/23/09 by Diana Miller

Five (Ann Davis, Mitch Davis, Derek DeYoung, Cheyenne Smith, and Diana Miller) TAI racers headed to Port Angeles to go camping (oh yea, we went to PA for the Fluid Cup # 5 – camping was just one of the perks!). The weather promised mild temperatures (mid 60’s) with no rain in sight, which was a pleasant blessing on an August race weekend.

On Friday (after setting up camp), Ann graciously towed me (new team member Diana) down the beginner course for the first couple of runs, giving me a good feel for the course. This was the first time I had ridden the whole PA course, and it showed my utter foolishness or profound trust in Ann not to lead me astray. Ann and I have similar riding skills so trust her I did. By the end of the day Friday, I was feeling comfortable on the course. If I hadn’t followed Ann down the course, I’m sure I would have had to get off the bike and take a look at a couple of sections. Friday, after Ann and I finished our pre-rides, we took a quick run (I walked a couple of sections) down the Sport course, at which time I was thrilled to be a beginner racer! It was fun to see the jump in difficulty from beginner to sport. After our pre-rides (and after some fun socializing with other racers) we headed back to our campsite to finish setting up the campsite and to enjoy a well-deserved meal of marinated flank steak, homemade scalloped potatoes, and a wedge salad with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar dressing.

I never sleep well, the first night in a new place and that was the case for this trip. I managed about 5 hours of sleep before I got up to start the coffee and breakfast of sausage, eggs and hash browns.

The first run of the second day of pre-rides (Saturday) I was feeling really good about the course and was beginning to enjoy riding it. All of the team members seemed to be pleased with their day of riding. We all stayed injury free, although the same couldn’t be said for all the bikes. Mitch’s bike begged for some TLC, and we found ourselves at a PA bike shop getting his brakes worked on. Cheyenne had to swap out one of the brakes on her bike (luckily she had her uncle’s bike with her and Derek’s dad, Dan, hired himself out as her mechanic).

We are learning quite a bit about race preparedness and I for one, plan to start bringing a few spare parts to races (including a spare tire and loctite). My foot slipped off of my left pedal, on a steep technical section, so I rode the section balanced on my right pedal. It wasn’t particularly fun, but it was justice because I hadn’t noticed 3 of my pedal spikes missing (all in a row) from the left back corner of one pedal! Thankfully Dan had some locktite in his tool kit, thus I moved the pedal spikes around a bit. It has been nice to have Dan at the races, this wasn’t the first time he helped out with team bikes!

We finished the day with Ann’s tator tot casserole and apple crumble cooked in Dutch ovens over the campfire. The camp ground wasn’t as quiet as it was the night before, a noisy group of campers called it a night around 4:15 am; thus a couple of us were lacking sleep on race day.

All the TAI team members took the 2 days of pre-riding the course serious, and it was obvious on Sunday at the finish line. I was thrilled to keep my tires and bike under me the whole time. The Beginner and Sport courses were the same as Fluidride cup #1 so it allowed a good comparison of how much a rider has/or has not improved. Derek, Mitch, Ann and Cheyenne all saw improvements! Of course having three (Mitch, Cheyenne and Ann) 1st place winners was great for Team TAI.


Race Results:

Cat II Men 0-14
4 Derek DeYoung (17 seconds faster)

Cat III Men 15-18
1 Mitch Davis (22 seconds faster)

Cat III Women 0-18
1 Cheyenne Smith (2 minutes 37 seconds faster-She crashed at race #1)

Cat III Women Open
1 Ann Davis (45 seconds faster)
5 Diana Miller (first time racing at PA)