Immature humor out of the way: every time I see grassman, I sort of think of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer gets the ASSMAN license plate. Ok glad I got that out of the way.
The race was pretty much a battle of will. The course on a dry day would be a bit more fun, but in the wet, no thanks. It was a muddy, rooted, slippery mess.
First lap took off.
Team mate Kyle Spisak got the holeshot, I was second on his wheel. Ben and
Brad behind me. We stayed like this through maybe halfway through the first lap, where Ben and Brad took off, and I latched on to follow.
We stayed together for the whole first lap, Ben taking us through our local trails, me holding on for dear life. Ben's gap steadily increased, and I did my best to keep Brad in site, hoping I could make something happen on the third lap.
These hopes were quickly dashed, as I bit it on a rooted section, and Brad was gone. After that it basically became a matter of survival. I knew I had a decent gap on fourth, so I just needed to stay upright and it'd be smooth sailing.
About that staying upright... not so easy.
As you can see, it was a battle of attrition. I had my gameface on.
It began to rain pretty steadily through the 2nd and into the 3rd laps, so the initially wet trail became a greasy mudpit, and the roots became even more deadly. Kenda Karmas were not a wise choice for these conditions.
After falling about a hundred times, often times in a pretty spectacular and painful fashion, I walked my bike up the last climb, which was way too slick to ride by this point and motored in ending up in 3rd place.
My first podium in the expert class, which is neat. We'll see how it turns out when more than six people show up :-)
There were tons of people out shooting photos, so when those turn up, I'll be sure to put them up.
Kudos to
Ryan O'Dell, Danielle Merry and the rest of the OMBC crew for listening to rider suggestions and making some awesome updates on the administrative end. From an organizational standpoint, this was a really well run race. Thanks!
Off to Westlake!
