Today’s race was pretty cool and was one of those great days spent out on the trails. Levis is one of my favorite places to ride and the course featured some of the best stuff there. We raced for 25 miles and the results turned out in the ‘normal’ order – Jesse scoring the W, Marko easily winning the style award en route to second, and me taking third. So third was the result, but today was full of firsts. I was racing aboard a borrowed bike that I hadn’t ridden on dirt much more than an hour prior to today. First time with a big front wheel, first time rigid, and first time single. The big wheel and rigid setup were easy to figure out, but the single gear part is a little bit tricky since I was slacking out there a little too much. I kept forgetting that I couldn’t go hard on the flats or descents and therefore I should have attacked the ups a little bit harder than I did. This evening I’m feeling spent but in a weird sort of way – more like I’m beat up rather than exhausted if that makes any sense.
Bike racing is bike racing and today proves that the more variety, the more fun the overall experience. In the past seven days I’ve done a geared wors race, a tuesday night crit, and now a ss mtb race. All good times yet each it’s own unique experience. It was good to get out there to see what the single gear racing is all about and I’ve got a high level of respect for those who race these bikes full time. Thanks to Pete for the bike and to Jesse for lining it up. The next race will be more business as usual – shifting into the big gears at Eau Claire next Sunday. Chloe placed eighth at Deer Valley today which is pretty awesome. It’s the first time in four years I haven’t done the NMBS there, but I’m not missing it too much at the moment. Looking forward to the East coast stuff after having sharpened my game here in WI. Have a good one, -TJ
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