First, I must say this was a great day of local racing. The weather was perfect, course fast and dry, and lots of CycleDepot colors on the course and on the podium.

My race started well enough. I was 7th or 8th into the woods after the hectic mass start. As everyone in front of me lined up single file to the left on the opening double track, I went to the right and eased up to 3rd with Nathan on my tail. A bit further down the trail I picked up a rather long branch that whipped me in the back and lodged in the non-drive side of my rear wheel. As I was trying to dislodge the unwanted passenger by hand on the roll, Nathan was trying to free the cling-on with his front tire. Finally it pulled free and I carried on with no positions lost. Unfortunately Nathan lost a few spots for his good deed. Once we hit the loam climb I moved into second and settled in for the remainder of lap 1. The guy leading did not seem real comfortable being there, but he rode a nice pace that everyone behind seemed happy with. The second time up the loam climb I take the lead and Steve Humphreys moves up from third into second. My plan is to test him on the longest climb of the lap. So the time comes and I am about to accelerate when Steve goes flying by. Uh-Oh, did not expect this! He powers up the climb and through the rest of lap two. I am pretty much redlined trying to keep up with him. When we hit the loam climb on lap three Steve slows a bit and I retake the lead. I try to keep a smart pace until the long climb, then try the attack plan again. This time it goes in my favor and I am able to open a small gap. The rest of the race is spent weaving through slower traffic, fighting of cramping twinges, and maintaining the small gap over Steve. The race ends with me in first and Steve less than 30 seconds back. The back and forth of this race was a lot of fun and being a local race the win even better. All the local kids did great in the junior race, always fun to watch. Tyler, Liam, Gavin, Ryder and Jagger all represented the team quite proudly. Gavin gets the prize for best crash, a number plate losing endo.

Now it is on to a couple hundred miles of fundraising for the Prouty and prepping for the Pinnacle.
 
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A tale of two Races.

My race plans never got off the ground, but I had an eager triumvirate of kids willing to race. Gavin, Ryder and Jagger towed the starting line with Liam and Tyler and a host of other kids racers. The gun went off and Gavin jumped into the lead pack, and off he went. Woody Groton's kid pulled into the lead for the younger guys and Jagger and Ryder stayed comfortable on his wheel. I tried to tell Jagger he could pass without Woody hearing me. I tried not to be a demanding Dad, but hey, if he could pass him, why not remind him? Nearing the 1/2 way point, we descended a singletrack. THis is where I discovered Gavin crying in the middle of the trail, he told me "I endoed and my belly hurts". Woody and Mark yelled that they have the twins while I cared for Gavin. My care consisted of the following: You ok? Is anything hurt? Get back on the bike and finish. He did. I did a quick detour looking for a lost child, and I ended up dead last in the kids race. Jagger held on for first, while Ryder claimed second. (last week the places were reversed) Gavin did not place, as his number came off in the crash, and I stuffed it in my pocket. The nice fellas of the SUnapee Lions scored him a medal, and he was happy. 3 packages of skittles later, and they all were happy.

We watched the start and first lap of the "adult race" and I vowed to come back later and tackle the Horror. I was impressed with Dan come around first overall after lap one, and roaring to a 1:21 3 lap hammer. I came back with expectations of 4 laps, but ended up with 3 after the heat took me out. Couldn't hold Dan's time as I ended with an uncrowded 3 laps of 1:25.23.

Well done boys, look forward to race reports on all and seeing the results.

PJ

Yesterday on the pre-ride you could tell it was going to be a fast race. Today even the muddy spots were not bad. At the start all the Sports were set off together to fight for the small two track leading into the woods. I bet there were nearly 40 of us, don't know for sure yet. There was some bumping and tire grinding but everyone made it through to the trail. I was about 10th and passed a couple leading on to the single track and got on Mark's wheel. I stayed there up to the loam road and noticed everyone seemed to be slowing down, I felt good so I locked out the front and rear stood up and moved up to second. I stayed behind this kid up to the first single track that takes off to the right and down. I passed him before the trail thinking I could go downhill faster than he could. I did and stayed in first place for the next lap and a half. It was an odd feeling. I jockeyed between second and 4th over all for the rest of the race and ended up 2nd in class. I think 5th overall in Sport. I had a good race no falls and technical riding went well. I like my new bike. 24HOGG will be a blast.
Dan

Interesting follow up, I downloaded my Polar HRM information this morning. Avg HR 95% of Max for entire time. 167 was avg and 183 max. No wonder I got tired on last lap. Need to follow Mark's practice of pacing myself.

Well, my hat is off to you gentlemen. Today was my first time racing on two wheels, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it was very humbling. It turns out that bike racing is WAY harder than running. I'm 98% sure I could have run the course faster today than I rode it. Is that bad?
My only goals going into today were pretty simple, 1)don't crash 2)ride the second lap faster than the first. For the most part I think I succeeded. However, I must point out that I somehow managed to not stay on my bike through the muddy spot on either lap, and lap 2 was only very marginally faster than the first (and this I chalk up solely to less traffic, since I was riding like a sack of potatoes.)
I have no idea how I ended up finishing. I know it wasn't good, but morbid curiosity is starting to settle in and I keep looking to try to find results. I think I'm primarily going to stick to running races from here on out. Running is just putting one foot front of the other faster than the other guy. Easy. None of this picking a line, waiting for room to pass, shifting, wheels slipping on muddy roots, chains falling off, having to get out the way for unbelievably fast people to rocket past, etc. etc. It's more than I know how to deal with. You guys are all nuts, and I'm quite impressed.
Happy Trails
-Adam

Oh come on now Adam, it couldn't have been that bad... oh wait, I don't race... maybe it could have been.

Great Job guys.

Swear we passed Dan twice on a road bike around race time... how is that possible???

Once on 11 near the swamp and the other time in front of Mt Sunapee.

Ryan

Good race, dry course, great finish, spotty execution.
It was the first test of the (mostly) newly built up Orbea and somehow I ended up with plate number 1.
There was an excruciatingly long wait under a blaring sun between elite & expert of 10 minutes on this a 5-mile speed course :oops: . Then we were off to a dead sprint in a mass of experts. I kept Brian's tail until the stick incident were I spaced to switch gears in the slow down and as he took off of bogged down and got passed by 4 riders.
Laps 1 went well, then on Lap 2 I saw Brian coming out of the first loop as I entered, I would not see him until the finish. I settled in with a guy on my tail, but I kept hitting the new XT shifters (which now work like a SRAM/Shimano mix), which I thought would be a fix for the straight trigger. Maybe I should go back to my thumbies, they still work!!! My front derailleur went all screwy on Lap 2 when I lost my big ring and had to hold my thumb shifter for the rest of the race so it wouldn't make an ungodly noise from chain rub.
I got past on Lap 3 buy two guys who I hoped weren't Elite. Kept on their tails on the climbs, lost time on the speed sections, I was able to reel in one and pass him for good rolling through the finish with a a very tires left thumb in 1:42, good enough for 3rd.
Some things Sunapee Lions and EFTA could do better for next year are tighten up the start times, hour+ wait for results is a little much and with the amount of sponsors shown on the t-shirt they could have a little food at the end (bananas and oranges work great). I know it is a money maker for them, but if you want to get your rider numbers up it is the little things that count.
Great job Team Pinnacle :!: Now for the big event.
 
Alone in the woods, who stands to be King?

This is not race report because I didn't go into it in race mode. I ran 5k race in Bradford the day before and was planning riding along with everyone in the race.

I started at the back of pack and followed everyone to the first single track. It felt really slow, so I started passing a few people on the double track sections. All of the single track sections were easy with the slow pace, but I did get by a few people who went down. I passed who I thought was the first woman up the last long climb before the steep downhill and had no one in sight behind me for awhile. Suddenly I found myself in the first field from the starting line and I knew I had missed a turn. I doubled back and saw riders taking the left turn that I should have. I think I lost a minute or so, and eventually I caught almost everyone I had previously passed, except for the lead woman, whom I never saw again. Even with the lost time, my first lap was nearly four minutes faster than last year's when I only raced two laps. I kept passing riders throughout the second lap and was about 11 minutes faster than last year at that point. Last year Brian caught me about a third of the way into the second lap and this year I gained a whole lap before he came screaming by me. I took it easy the third lap and planned to stay ahead of the sport riders behind me, which I did. Although the rider that I followed for more than half of the third lap was a sport master (which I didn't realize) and finished two seconds behind him in 1:37:26.

Next week I'll be ready to race the Pinnacle.