Mount Wood Mud Extravaganza

On the agenda for the weekend was OMBC race three, at Mount Wood, right on the West Virginia / Ohio border.

Andrew and I take off bright and early, and when we get down there, it's cold and rainy. Sweet. Luckily I brought some mud tires that were a bit more aggressive than the Small Block 8's I normally run. I rushed to throw them on and get dressed. By the time all that is taken care of, oh shit it's time to race.

Let me just say that starting a race with no warm up at all is rough on the legs. With that out of the way, we were off. I absolutely loved the beginning of the course, some gravel double track that was pretty dang hilly. I ended up getting the holeshot and lo and behold, Darren and Mike from CAMBA were up there with me. After some hill action, we were all looking pretty good in the front.

I had no legs the whole race, and had to push myself to keep the tempo up, no fun. I think it was the lack of breakfast, warm up, and sleep. Let it be known, if you want to feel good in a race, do the exact opposite that I do.

The trail was awesome. Some good technical descents, really good flow at times, and more hills than this Ohio boy is used to. All was going well, until Darren trashed his rear derailleur. Bummer.

So after that, it was Mike, myself, and one other guy off the front. Maybe about half way through the race, we came up to some more double track, and a hefty climb at that. If there's any time for me to make a move, this was it. I asked Mike if he wanted to come with, and he was happy to oblige.

After killing myself up the climb with Mike, we were all by our lonesome. Then things started to get interesting.

No clue why, but my pads on my front BB7 went kaput. They were hitting the rotor, but just weren't grabbing. And after that hill came some pretty wild technical descents.

Technical descents on a full rigid with only a back brake. No bueno.

Luckily I was able to not kill myself, although I was mighty close at times. For the rest of the race Mike and I were putting ourselves through some mutual suffering. When all was said and done, I ended up first in Sport Senior, with a total time of 1:52:38, and a 3:17 gap over second place. Mike won Sport Vet, Andrew won Novice.

Northeast Ohio was looking strong. I'm looking forward to the Wilds in two weeks and then the Knob to avenge my flat tire.

There were about a zillion people with cameras and stuff, so I'm sure the pictures will show up soon and I'll toss 'em up here.