Eau Claire Fire Cracker

I was pretty skeptical going into the race this weekend, I had only be out riding once in the past week and the entire time my chain was skipping around like crazy. I worked on the bike as much as I could on Friday and thought I had it fixed. We drove up to Eau Claire and set up camp, there was a forecast for rain but there weren't any clouds and it was a perfect day.
During the preride I determined that this was going to be by far the coolest race I have ever been to. The course was so fun, it had everything! Fast double track, flowing single track, river crossing, quick valleys, nice climbs, can a biker ask for anything else!?
The next morning we woke up to cloudy and threatening sky's. We quickly packed the tent to avoid packing in the rain. About the time we got everything put in the truck the rain started. Cathy was pretty nervous about the course getting wet and sloppy. But as she was lining up the rain quit and it turned out to be a really nice day. Cathy took off and sat in the top 5 until they neared the single track, then she made her move and was glad she did. She surprised herself on how smooth she was going through the woods and in less then half a lap was already catching some of the clidesdale riders. When I seen her about 3/4 into her first lap she had opened a 1.5 minute gap over second place. Her second lap was even smoother and more fun then the first. She crossed the line 4 minutes before the next women!
As soon as Cathy's awards were done I jumped on the bike for a warmup ride. I tried to open things up but was feeling really flat. I decided to just ride with a good cadence and see what happened when the race started. Because the Minnesota combined with Wisconsin the call up was 3 rows deep. I got lined up as close to the front as I could and we were off. I felt really good starting, we were cruising pretty fast and I kept in the mid-teens so I wouldn't kill myself right away. As we started to twist and bounce through the woods my chain started skipping really bad again. The only way I could keep it on was to run the big ring. This wasn't really a problem except on some big hills and on the last lap. I kept everything in check, and made sure I wasn't pushing too hard too early. As we were nearing the finish I was trying to hold off Ray Nelson and one other rider. I was coming up on a Comp racer and told him I needed to get by. I think I made him nervous and because of that he crashed hard! I got tangled in that for a second and that allowed the other guys to caught me, we battled on last run to the finish and then they got around me on the sprint. The race was a lot of fun, I need to figure out what is going on with my bike though.
The next few weeks are going to be getting back into base miles. I am going to start my drive to peak for Chequamagon in Sept.
That's about it for now, I will get some pics up here as soon as I get a chance. Until then, keep the rubber side down and thanks for reading.