So much stuff has happened and I haven't had a bit of time to post it here. Well, that's a lie. I've had time but no motivation. Everyone teased me enough to finally make me join the droned out world of Facebook so you can usually find some random updates over there.
Lets see... Last post was after Survive the Burn down in Warsaw. From there it was a couple week layover before Wilson Lake KS. The Fat Tire Festival always ends up being one of my favorite race weekends of the year. Something about that crazy trail out in the middle of Kansas, and of course being able to race some good friends at a usually high and hard pace does it. Cam and Shad showed up again, along with a little man named Kyle who's under BMC's wing and rides with the boys out in Colorado Springs.
That race and weekend ended well. In the end I couldn't quite keep Cams wheel, but managed to take the second spot overall. Doug and his crew pulled everything off as usual with the kinda skills and organization that only comes with being veterans.
After that it was another short break, and then back at it up at Manhatten, KS for the Big Poppi Dirty Little Secret race. It served as the Kansas state champs this year, and rumor had it they had a complete singletrack loop last year, skipping the first years grassy sections. It ended up being true, and even better was it cured perfectly following 2 inches of rain the night before. That race was truely as good as it gets conditions wise. I managed to pull together a good ride, and battled 3 laps of the course in hot and humid conditions to take the overall win. It was good training and a damn good course to ride a bike on. Aaron has to win best swag and after party for a XC race though. He always comes through with some awesome food, free Tallgrass beer, and enough swag to stock a bike store.
St. Joe's Roubidux Roundup was after that, or however the hell you spell or say it. We've hit this race up for the last 4 or 5 years, I'm not sure exactly. It may have been the race that I took my first overall Cat 1 victory, not sure exactly on that either but it sounds true. Either way it's a fun race, and a hard one. You pretty much have to be feeling good on the climbs that day to do well. It's a pretty relentless track, but it serves those who can corner and climb the best. Luckily for me I've happened to work on those skills plenty the last few years, and for the third year in a row took the overall win. I was happy to be under 1:40 for the three laps which was the goal going in.
Which brings us to last weekend, Bump and Grind Pro XCT down in Birmingham, AL. I'm tired of typing so here's the fast rundown. We start, I squeeze into 9th, and I stay there for 45 minutes where approximately half way up the 4 mile climb I got dropped. Hung in as best as I could, suffered, blew up, came back together, finished 14th overall out of 25. It would have been great to get that top 10, but I was happy regardless. It was a damn hard race, and I only managed to lose the leading group by 10 minutes flat on what was a 2 hour race for me. I've never held the lead group like that before so that was cool. That course kinda lends itself that way with the first 30 minutes or so on crazy fast, flowy, benchcut that you could only ride so fast. We rode it pretty fast though...
Looks to be a Warsaw kinda weekend, then maybe a flight out to the Springs to race a gem of a trail called Palmer Park. Plenty of opportunities locally coming up too which is nice.
Puke over, I'll try to keep it more legit in the future. I also have no pictures, well I do but I don't feel like messing with them. Technology still needs to be easier.
Let's ride bikes this weekend. I heard it may be good.
G
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