Guess it is time to plan for the opening event of the season. Unless the weather is attrocious, I will be heading out at 7:00 AM on Saturday. Up to five people can ride with me. RSVP here please.

Brian
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

Already signed up so I will be going. Was planning on heading out a little later, but I could probably make 7am

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

I won't decide to attend Hop Brook until Friday. Looks like temps in the low 50s and rain Friday night and all day Saturday. If thats the case, have Fun!

I think Dana and I are on the same fence. It's on my calendar, I want to go, but travelling that far to race in a cold rain isn't on my list of things I prefer to do.

To prepare myself, I'm going to set up my trainer in the shower, turn the water on cold, and do intervals and hill repeats for two hours. I'll let you know how it turns out.

MG

You need to have a fan on high and have Rhonda come in unannounced and knock you off the trainer a couple times Mark. If it is real world conditions you are training for.

Temps are projected to be closer to 60 now. Maybe the thunderstorm warnings will desist by Saturday. 8)

I probably won't make the race whether or not the weather is good. I have been sick since Saturday and just can't seem to kick it. I tried riding for about 20 minutes yesterday and was just exhausted.

Good luck to anyone that goes.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

The weather in Middlebury looks like it will improve on race day to low temps in the 60s and chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, but I'm canning it as well due to other committments.

It is supposed to rain there tonight and tomorrow morning.

Hey Everyone,

Keith and I went down to HopBrook for the sport class race, and were rewarded with temperatures in the low 80's and sunny skies (actually got a bit of sunburn on the arms...), so thankfully the weather forecast was completely off. It turned out to be the hottest weather I have ridden in this year.

The course itself was in reasonably good shape for an early spring race, a few mud spots but most of the single and double-track was dry. Mostly non-technical, but a few rocky sections just to keep you honest. Everythign was rideable except for 1 quick up-hill that could have been cleared but made more sense to run up during the race. The downhills were in great shape and you could reallly bomb down the flats.

Now for the race report: The sport field was huge, and the 30-39 class had about 45 racers. We went off in a shot around the lake, then the classic bottleneck as you climb up into the first singletrack section. I was feeling reasonably good but about 1/2 way through the first lap got a horrendous side-stitch which took a bit of time to shake and enable myself to breath (and allowed quite a few racers to pass me), then settled down and held a reasonable pace for the rest of the lap and most of lap 2. Felt pretty good up the climbs, just didn't have the off-road fitness to pound the rollers and flats.

By mid-way through lap 2 (sport only did 2 laps this race) my legs, arms, and back were starting to feel 4 years of time off racing, plus no off-road riding since November. I was able to hold my position for most of lap 2, but was already slipped pretty far back in the field. I kept a few riders in site to pace myself, and tried to hit the hills as hard as possible.

In the end I finished about 32nd out of 45 including DNF's with a time of 1:16, a result I am reasonably happy with for my first race in some time. I was particularly pleased to see that my 2nd lap was the same pace as my first, so the pacing is on track (just still too slow!). The new 29'er hardtail rode well with absolutely no mechanicals and clean shifting even with some mud thrown into the drivetrain.

Keith rolled in a few minutes behind me and also had a pretty good race, I'll leave it to him to describe it from his point of view.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the experience, and glad we went down as the weather turned out to be a huge boost. We were able to give Team Pinnacle/CCD some representation, but missed all of you faster guys to make us more competitive.

I'm headed off to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week - looking forward to getting together to ride with everyone when I get back (hopefully on the trails in the near future).

Take it easy,

Aaron

Good job Aaron I went back and forth a few times on deciding to go. Ended up doing an 80 mile hammer fest with Brian and Mark. Glad the new bike worked well I am anxious to see it.
Dan

Congrats Aaron and Keith.

Turned out to be one of the nicest projected bad days I've seen in a long time.

Ryan