July was a busy month, full of a lot of good times on and off the bikes. It included a WORS race, a National Championship, and a MNSCS event. Off the bike there was camping, birthdays, and even a wedding (well the wedding was actually August 1st) all spit between WI and CO.
The biggest race highlight was finishing 2nd in the Singlespeed Nationals race. I’ve done limited riding on a single before so it was something not necessarily in my element. This made for some awesome pre race nerves, but by the race started it was largely business as usual. One gear or not bike racing is largely the same in that whoever focuses and works the most usually wins, this assuming that you show up with good fitness. Using a 32×20 allowed me to sit on some of the climbs to finish out the three long laps of racing. I was with JJ for 1/2 a lap, but he got away near the top of the climb while we struggled to pass Expert racers in the singletrack. For the most part I rode the race solo and the time gap to JJ stayed at roughly a minute for the bulk of day. I was having fun with the course and figuring out just how hard to go on various climbs. JJ is a CO guy and we’ve got back and forth in previous races when I’m using gears and he’s on the single. The Tucson Daily Star even did a little write up: here.
Prior to Nationals, the Eau Claire crew put on a good WORS showdown with the Fireracker race. I was recruited to race with a fork mounted camera, but so far none of that footage has surfaced. If and when it does, there’ll be a couple good crashes and plenty of chasing to be seen since I was off the lead group for most all of the race before finishing fourth.
And to close out the racing for the month I got over to Elk River, MN for the Singletrack Attack last weekend. It was my first ride back from Colorado and unbeknown to me my front tire hadn’t fully sealed itself prior to the start of the race. About 10 minutes into things I was forced to stop and add CO2 from the Big Air. This did the trick, but several riders were able to go by so I had some passing to do and it didn’t take much for the lead trio disappear and I wasn’t able to join in. Another fourth place was the result.
Up next will be the Ore to Shore. I’m excited for this one and hope to have another good go at it after finishing 2nd there a year ago. I’ve been able to get in some solid training for it, so if all goes well it ought to be an interesting race at the front end. Over and out, -TJ
Entries (RSS)