MNMBS #1

I raced at the first state series race yesterday. I was real close to going home due to an hour long downpour. Luckily, they pushed back the start of the races. The sport class guys rode first, taking all the mud on the trail, and putting it on their bikes. Thanks guys!

This was my first comp race. It went very well. I got a satisfactory start. Not great. I entered the single track in roughly 20th place in my group. The mud that the Sport guys and gals had fun with an hour earlier was just about completely gone. Anyway, I didn't have that much passing to do on my first lap. I started seeing the back of the expert women group about 3/4 way through the lap. In the end, I wound up 22nd overall out of 96 and 6 out of 18 in my age group, less than a minute behind the age group leader. Last year, this was one of my worst races in the sport class. I'm very happy I did better and that I decided to stay.

The MNMBS race organizers did a great job dealing with the weather. It was funny, though. Because of the mud, the sport guys actually had a longer race than comp. Judging by last year, the Afton race will not be that way. Hopefully, I can come to that race a little better rested. I'm not sure how I'm going to dose out a ~2 hour effort there.

Here's a couple phone pictures of the sport men as they came out of the single track on the first lap. The photos don't really convey how much mud there was. These guys deserve a hand. This looked rough!