Homage To Dust

I felt the need to rename this race because there was no ice anywhere, maybe a bit on the ski hill across the road, but that was likely slush.

So it was very dusty. Dry and Dusty, like Mansfield usually is. I got lots of that dust into my eyes, and maybe some sand too, and they hurt quite a bit after. I removed my glasses during the second lap because a drop of sweat landed inside the lens and dried leaving a big salt stain.

So I would say that the race went very well for me. I ended up finishing fifth overall with 3 accomplished elite riders and the super fast Steven Noble junior finishing ahead. Peter Glassford won in the end finishing 6 minutes up on myself.

I felt superb at the start of the race. I easily made my way to the front of the group on the first climb, and was sitting in second on Jacob's wheel after climbing the long o-cup start climb. I took the lead on the long doubletrack section and had a small gap for a little before Peter and Jacob came by my before heading into the first singletrack bit. I held onto them all the way till my first crash. This one happened in a new section of trail that was very tight. What happened was my foot got caught on a small bent over tree. This pulled me over, and I scratched my leg on a tree and wound up a tangled up in the forest. I was fine, but I lost the leaders, and Noble and Carlton got by me here. I kept them in sight for a long time, but they where slowly getting away. I found myself riding with no one in sight for a while, until I looked back near the top of a switchback climb and saw Matt F and Cycle Solutions guy coming up to the climb. I looked back at the wrong time because it resulted in me missing a bridge to get over a log. I tried to hop the log beside it, but with very little momentum I couldn't get my rear wheel over and bashed my knee off my stem very hard while trying to do so. This hurt so bad, and got me so pissed off that it took me a long time to start riding well again.

Shortly after that I had my second and final crash. This one was on a very sandy right turn. I simply came in too fast, front wheel washed out and I flew into the sand. The two that where behind me got by here and I let them get a away a bit, but kept them in sight. I closed the gap on them just before the section of singletrack where my first crash took place. I rode with them for a bit, Then the CS guy pulled off, and it was jut Matt an Myself. I followed him for a while and was liking the pace he set. I figured I would attack him on a climb, but I didn't have to because he failed to get over the big angled log, and I rode around it getting any easy gap on him. I upped my pace from there and held it till the end.

So although I had some crashes I felt pretty good technically. I just need to get more miles on my MTB so that I can feel more comfortable on it and start to ride a bit smoother. Once I get smoother I will be able to squeeze out more watts on the singletrack and go a bit faster. Lower tire pressure will help too; I had them way to hard for yesterdays course.

All n' all it was a great day.
Thanks for the ride Jeff!

Congrats Etzl on your Bronte win, and Perry second. Nice.