Iola WORS #1

You never know what to expect for the first race of the year. I knew that I had been doing a lot of riding and TJ has been really helping a lot. We got up the Iola around mid afternoon for a good pre-ride. I guess they haven’t got much rain up there because it was really dry. That made for a really fast course and made the sand that much looser.

After the pre-ride we set up camp and then just hung out. It was fun talking to everyone again after going into social hibernation over the winter. We finally called it a night and climbed into our sleeping bags. After totally freezing over the night, I think it got a lot colder than they were predicting, the sun came out to make for a perfect day of racing.

Cathy was excited to try the Sport class and the challenge of a longer course. As soon as she took off the butterflies were gone. When she came out of the woods for the first time she was running 3rd place and looking good.
They looped through the ski bowl and into the woods for more climbing. I seen her as she was heading out for the lap and she and the leader had opened a sizable gap over 3rd place. Just after starting the second of three laps as Cathy was going into the climbs she dropped her chain!! It only took a about 20 seconds which seemed a lot longer before she was off and going again. By this point the 3rd place girl had gotten by her. Cathy knew that they were the same on the hills so she was patient and waited until the single track to close the gap. Sure enough coming out of the second to last set of single track she made her move. Both of them sprinted through the open double track and Cathy beat her into the trees! The girl was right on her tail all the way to the finish! It was a really cool race to watch and I am sure it was even that much more fun to race!

It wasn’t long after she finished until we were lining up to go. I lined up toward the back because I didn’t want to go out too hard. We took off and hit the first climb. I was spinning the big ring really easily and there were about a million guys ahead of me so I made a small move over the top of the hill. The first lap was really fast, I was pushing in the hills but really didn’t feel like I was over doing it at any point. If ever a gap opened up I was able to easily get around my guy and close it up. My CrossMark tires were hooking up like it was no-ones business they rolled super fast on the hard pack and really gripped in the sand! At the end of the first lap our group had dropped to 4 guys and stayed that way for the next two laps. On the 4th lap I was just starting to feel the burn. I had been eating Clif Blocks which were total life savers, but I was starting to feel the fast pace of the last 3 laps. I struggled in the hills to hang on to the group and had to close the gap in the single track a couple times. Then right toward the end of the 4th lap 2 guys attached HARD. I stuck with Tim Drankus for about half way through the final lap. The last set of hills really hurt and I had to slow a little in order to recover and be able to finish. Two guys got around me and I jumped on their wheel. I was getting stuck in a lot of lap traffic and it was hard to keep a good pace going having to look out for other riders, no problems though that is how it goes. Coming into one of the last clearing I was right on Doug’s (Polska) wheel but just couldn’t get around him. I was really hoping to get him on the sprint but he hung strong and was able to keep half a bike on me at the line.Over all it was a really good race. I might have gone a little hard at the start but really the last lap isn’t suppose to feel like a walk in the park either. Everyone else had good races so it should be interesting to see how this season plays out.