Race at Davis

The team was together this weekend for the WV State Mountain Bike Championships in Davis WV. Several of us took our families up for a long weekend and enjoyed the surroundings of Canaan Valley, Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods and the downtown area of Davis.

On race day, the morning started off a little sketchy with the late arrival of William to our tent area. He had been delayed on the way in and was scrambling to fix a pre-race flat before anything got started. We managed to get it fixed, and him geared up in time for the race meeting with a few minutes to spare. This is the race début for his new Cannondale Flash 29’er and things were off to a rocky (literally, if you know the course) start.

As the race started William got out to a good start, just to be brought to a halt a couple miles in by a rear tire flat. We all passed William as he fixed his flat and got back on the trail. It wasn’t long before he caught us and passed us with hopes to climb back to the leaders of his class.

Derek (newest member of the LMBA) and I continued to race the beginner loop never to see William again. Derek passed me at one point and opened up a small lead. I got off to my usual slow start and then got the motor turning about half way thru the race. After Derek opened up his lead I saw him bobble on one of the many rock gardens and used this to make my move. I powered through that section in the big ring and opened a lead on Derek that I was able to maintain throughout the race. I then started to pick off other riders as I started to feel better and pick up speed. My effort landed me an 8th place finish, not as good as I had hoped but not bad considering I was only 4:40 off of the leader. Derek finished a very respectable 10th out of 28 riders in our class.

Dennis had the best finish on our team with a 7th place in the Sport Vet category, continuing to improve his strength at the new sport distance that he is trying to get use to this year.

As for William………2 more flats that day (yes that's a total of 4) put him pushing to complete the race and a 12th place finish. This dropped him to 2nd place in the overall Sport Masters class for the year. A couple more 1st place finishes should remedy that and lock in the overall win this year.

All in all, this race turned out to be on of the worst showing for LMBA this year. We will be at Little Beaver next hoping to improve our results. Although we are all out to just have fun and ride, finishing well never hurts.

Remember,

If you don't crash, you're not riding hard enough,
Chris

Follow his link to pictures from the 2010 Wilderness Challenge.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/2010WildernessChallenge02?feat=directlink

Home Course Advantage

Our home course race has now came and gone and I’ll have to admit I’m glad it’s over. When your hosting a race it takes allot of time and coordinating to pull it of. Although I was not responsible for the majority of the work, it still created allot of tasks for all our club members. Hats off to Dennis for shouldering most of the responsibility!!

With that said let’s talk a little about the race. The day started out pretty good and then turned into what we have dealt with at most of the races this year……..rain!! The trails at Logan have always been pretty hard packed and shed water very quick. Often we can ride the same day as an earlier rain and not be affected at all. I will have to agree with William when he said “the trails today are in the worst condition that I have ever ridden here”. Even with that, they were not too bad and the race went on.

Now to our results….William continues to dominate the Sport Masters and bagged a 1st place finish in the sport master and an overall 3rd place in the sport division. Dennis also continues to improve at the sport distance and took home a 4th place finish in the sport vet category. Josh started off very strong in the beginner class and was a couple minutes ahead of the pack until a slippery bridge took him out of the race and to the hospital for 12 stitches on his ankle. To poor salt in the wound, his front wheel was pretty messed up and will probably need replaced. I managed to hold onto 3rd in the beginner class after a flat tire on the Backbone trail climb about 2 miles from the finish.

We hope to update the blog in a couple days with a link to pictures that were taken during the race.

Until next post,
Chris

Race Course Marked

Finished clearing the trees that fell yesterday . Course is marked and ready for the pre rides. Expert will be approx 19...Sport is 15 and Beginner is 10...Trails are in great shape and if it rains tomorrow and sunday the course will still be in great shape. Course starts at the ranger station. The food will be great and an enormous prize table....Hope to see everyone there...

Tour de Peanut Butter

The crew headed to Spencer, WV for the Tour de Lake this past weekend. The weather that day was pretty good, no rain and pretty hot. The problem was the rain that they had on Saturday......just enough to turn the trails into a 10 mile loop of peanut butter mess. The trails were narrow, slippery and full of roots, this made for a very technical course and a great race. I got off to a slightly better start this race, I have had problems starting strong that have left me playing catch up for most of the races. This time I was a little stronger in the beginning and possible payed for it with a slower second half of the course. 3/4 thru the race I had worked my way to 3rd place in the beginner class and could here a ride closing on me. He caught me with about a mile left and passed me only to crash on a slippery root 100 yards after the pass. After this I was able to hold him off after a quick decent and a sprint across the dam to the finish, I managed to be about 5 second ahead of him for a 3rd in the men's beginner class.

William had a strong race even though the mud is his worst enemy, being his least favorite race conditions. He came across the line in 1st place for the Sport Masters. Dennis also was strong with a 4th place finish in the Sport Vet class. For an interesting story, ask him about the rider he came up on that was taking a dump on the trail...........Dennis has the worst luck!!

CHIEF LOGAN TRAIL VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CoPi3UNrQ VIDEO 1 OF 3



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyiX4yOZSTA VIDEO 2 OF 3



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K4FVUfCiM VIDEO 3 OF 3



THIS IS NOT ALL OF THE TRAILS IN THE PARK JUST A FEW. ENJOY THE VIDEOS...

Mountwood..........RAIN FEST!!

Dennis, William and I made the trip to Mountwood for the WVMBA points race #2 for the season. Weather was pretty good as we left Logan and went downhill from there. Just outside of Charleston it began to rain and continued pretty much the entire day. As we arrived at the park the rain was pretty steady and we knew we would be in for a wet day. As the race started I got off to a very slow start and just could not get the pedals turning as fast as I needed to. About half way thru the race I began feeling pretty good and managed to pass 6 or 8 riders and finished 2nd in the beginner class......pretty happy with that result given all the mud. Dennis and William rolled out in the sport vet and masters classes respectively and had pretty good runs. William was plagued by a long delay to fight his chain as it was hung from chain suck, almost to the point of giving up he managed to free it and finished 3rd in his class. Dennis finished about 4 minutes behind him to secure 6th in the vet class. Both suffered brake failure, a common comment heard at the finish line. All in all a petty fun race, defiantly a course I would like to ride again in dryer conditions. Next race that we will b attending will be the WVMBA #3 in Bluefield this weekend.

Hope to see you there!!!!