Yea, thats right. Bean bag champ. I'm thinking about following the pro bean bag toss circuit. Pays better than racing. Well, it did two weeks ago anyways.
I think I'm going to include something like this in my race on the 15th and 16th, not sure what exactly, but it's gonna be fun.
The Manchester Medly HPRA races in North Manchester, IN were a blast as usual. It's not the fastest course, but it is a really cool little town and the people are great fun. Just watching my friend Reena bounce off the walls is worth the drive :) It's too bad the second day got rained out, but thats how it goes.
The drive out was my first expereience using my Tom Tom navigation system's "shortest route" feature, that was entertaining. Definitely saw some backroads I wouldn't have seen otherwise.....
Well, that was two weeks ago. I spent the last week burning a whole bunch of midnight oil finishing up Syd's new lowracer, which I then delivered Friday night. It came together pretty well considering this is my first attempt at a two part frame, and it is by far the most adjustable bike I have built thus far. I should have spent a little more time smoothing out my fillets and prepping before throwing paint at it, but I was pretty happy to have it all together by 3:30pm Friday. Didn't even have to breath drying paint fumes on the way out. I'm pretty excited to see what she can do with it, after she figures out the basics of course.
So, Saturday morning we loaded up the Suburu with three Badgers, a KM, two Browns and a Grelk, and headed for Doug Palen's farm for the Cruise the Blues six hour mtb race near Tipton KS. I kept hoping to see dry soil as we got closer, but it just wasn't happening. As a matter of fact I learned another lesson with the Tom Tom. When the nice lady tells you turn in KS, you'd best turn. The next road might be more path than road. Good thing this car is rally car inspired.
Sydney's mom, Nancy, was set to compete in her first mtb race ever, in the mud, at a a six hour. How's that for a cool mom? Well, I'm coming to expect it from the Brown Family, but thats still pretty damn cool.
There were over 150 participants this year with over 30 in the solo Glory six hour division. I saw a few familiar faces, but I didn't really know who was racing team and who was racing solo. I planned to race the 29er for the first lap to make sure there weren't any CX flat inducing sections on the course(no preriding a muddy course) and then switch to the CX bike and finally get some ride time in on that thing. Well that first lap was plagued with a about three derailments(one on the start line), which led to a whole bunch of time stuck in the mid-pack bottleneck(did get to see a guy fly off a bridge though). And with my recent upgrade to the wider Stan's Flow rims (hence making my mud clearance disappear, duh) I burnt a bunch of watts peeling mud off the tires with the chainstays. But hey, those wheel are noticibly stiffer now.
Lap two: switched to the cross bike. Man this thing flies, sticks to the corners, accelerates great, even handles the slimy stuff with confidence. The only spots that felt slow this lap were the loamy dirt sections along the fields where I could feel my 32c Speedmaxs sinking in.
Lap three: ok, I'm on a cross bike, the soft trail is drying, and I'm starting to fatique a bit. Lower back is kinda complaining. I think I'm gonna switch back to the 29er next lap. Then I hear this perky voice behind me say "Hey, is that a Badger on your ass?" Hello, Sydney. Well thats cool, at least the first person to pass me is my team mate. Damn she's strong. I let her go and roll on in only to find her sitting in the pits with a bag of ice on her toes. Sit and chat, eat, swap the race number plate back to the 29er.
Lap four: Roll out a little faster, new goal, stay ahead of Syd. The 29er definitely feels faster on the loamy stuff. Try to spin more and mash less. Roll throught the pits fast.
Lap five: Crap, I'm getting a little bonky now. Keep spinning. No sign of Syd yet through the halfway point. Maybe she slowed down. Then out on the final two mile streach on the switchbacks in the pasture, I look back and there she is, kicking my ass up the climb. So I crank it up, two mile dirt tt. Finish up my fifth lap at 5:47 in 5th overall with Syd coming in at about 5:48 1st place woman and 6th overall.
Nancy finished up two laps on the Joy course for second place in the womens +51 category. Badger teamates Cameron Chambers and Josh Patterson took first in Glory team overall.
A great weekend with great folks and well run event.
Now it's time to try and recover before the Labor day weekend's fun, the Ultra Midwest's 24hour RAAM qualifier(no I'm not doing RAAM)
DG
