Putney was fun! I was really nervous because it was my first cross country mtnbike race. I had visions of busting my collar bone, or maybe knocking out my teeth, or worse, breaking my bike. It was great to see Greg, Dana and Brandon at the race, and of course to be there with Tim (although he was sort of grumpy with pre race jitters :D ).

I raced sport and am in the 35+ group. Our race started late by about 30 minutes. We did 2 laps instead of 3, which the official gave us the option of (in road racing officials generally don't let the field vote on making the race easier before so this was a first for me). First Tim and his group went off, then Dana in his group, and finally the women. I was really relieved to have just all women going off as it made the mass start into a slick trail less scary. I warmed up really well but the 30 minute wait hurt me and my legs were really sore for the first half an hour of the race. The 20 somethings did not seem to suffer from this problem and I was the only one breathing like a train for that first half hour. Once I settled down, I was able to slowly start catching women. It was really greasy but the course was not all that technical, which is good for me. The first lap around I endo'ed in a mud hole that felt like it was 5 feet deep but otherwise was mostly on my bike except for the slog up a really hard, muddy climb that totally kicked my butt. By the start of the second lap there were 3 women in front of me. I passed one early in the second lap, and then I started yo-yo-ing with the girl in 2nd place. Sadly for her, she took a big crash on some roots - I asked her if she was OK and she said she was -so I started cranking as hard as I could and then I was in 2nd. I kept pushing and by the last mile I could see the first place woman, but I couldn't close the whole gap by the finish and ended up about 50 or more feet behind her. She was in a younger group and so I ended up winning my category and was second in the whole women's field which was totally, completely shocking but awfully fun at the same time!
Lessons learned -
- unlike the road, where once you are dropped from the field it's pretty much all over for you, if you keep trying it might make a difference in your placing.
- the little switch on my shock turns it on and off... this is pretty handy when climbing and I wish I'd figured out how to do this last year when I got the bike...
- mud with cow poop in it does not taste good on your water bottle. Actually, although I'm OK with mud generally speaking, the cow poop in mud is really not so great.

I think I'm going to do some more of these races, it was really pretty cool and the whole environment is fun and more family oriented than the road (not that I don't love the road, this was just a neat new experience).

Loren

Awesome report and placement Loren.

Ryan

Nice job Loren.
The Horror at Harding Hill, in Sunapee, sounds like a comparable course to Putney, maybe you should give that one a look.
 
Alone in the woods, who stands to be King?

I got a great start, second off the line and then led down the first hill and up the first climb. I pulled away with a noticeable gap and maintained this throughout the first lap leaving all but one competitor behind. Just as we were coming down the descent that leads to an uphill finish of lap 1, he blows by me. I closed his lead on the climb to about 10 seconds to finish of lap 1. We yo-yo?d the entire second lap, I closed the gap on the uphills and lost it on the downhills, and he began to pull away on the 3rd lap. I was just trying to limit any more time loss, but in the final mile, I began to fade and a couple of more guys got by me. I was unaware if they were in my category, but turns out they were. All in all, I was happy, but I should have been able to finish 2nd with a little more effort at the end. Finished 4th 1:32 back.