WORS

I am sorry for the time between post. My schedule has acted as an old flower mill by griding me down in to a fine powder. You can also thank Dave Breslin for giving me crap which is why I sit here pecking at my lap top.

WORS-Sunburst Showdown
I have heard (I don't know why this wont stop typing in bold sorry) a lot about the Wisconsin Off Road Series so when I was asked if I wanted to venture up to Milwaukee to race in the the biggest series in the states I naturally said yes. I did what training I could in the weeks prior to the Aug. 11th race.

Aug 9th we met up at the residence of Mason Storm (Team Seagal) at 6pm. It was myself, Brad Hicks (also a member of the superior single speed team), and of coarse the one and only Mason Storm (Matt Hoffmeyer). Loaded our bikes and gear on/in my Mopar gas friendly automobile and it was on like Donkey Kong. Everyone was tired and I wasn't 100% on the directions so we ended up in Chicago before realizing we had gone two hours out of our way. 2am we arrive at Matt's sisters apartment AKA Best Hotel in Milwaukee and crashed.

Saturday was Pre-ride out at the Sunburst Ski Resort which has created a wicked fast trail network complete with a pine maze, berms you can rail on, a sadistic lung-busting-seeing-spots-do-they-make-a-smaller-ring-then-a-22? climb, and a white knuckle downhill. The actual trial is not very technical with maybe three rocks but when it went into the woods it turned on a dime. We enjoyed two laps and headed back to town for some fine eats and a solid 8 before Judgment day.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! The fruit smoothies went down easy and we set off for the race. As we suited up and made final preparations more and more compeditors showed up. The number of enterants was about 600. As I warmed up I could not shake my nerves and the bike just did not feel right under me. I was in the Elite field which was Pro, Semi-Pro, and Expert. Brad was Comp. singlespeed and Matt raced Comp. Clydesdale. It was pretty cool being on a starting line with 43 other dudes and having them call out the huge names. The horn sounded and Lightning exploded in front of me and I struggled to hold on. The dust was thick as we made the prologue lap but I was able to gain some spots back as we hit the coarse. I pulled back one or two on the first couple of switch backs that started the ascent. I bobbled on a turn and lost three places mid-climb. I was already knew I was in for a long race. Coming down the back side of the mountain my lines where sloppy and I was not trusting my brakes. At the bottom heading into the maze my front shifter started to sick and continued to pleg me for 3 laps. At the time I could not figure out why but when the clamp broke off on the 4th lap I was able to put the pieces together. I let all of this get into my head and started to stress the lines stayed sloppy and my composer disappeared faster then beer at a frat party.

Lap two found me getting my ass kicked by a chick. She was hella fast and super cool and we traded places till the climb on the third lap where I stopped to give a comp rider my spare master link and multi tool to fix his chain (I was hoping Karma would work for me). I was caught and passed by another elite female rider and passed her back gaining a little boost before the line came around again

Lap three was brutal and I just kept thinking okay I only have to go the hill two more times. The down hill was still difficult for me and I ate it on a near vertical drop in. I was fine so was the back so I hopped back on and continued on, getting passed my more comp riders.

Lap four I was digging and trying to stay focused. On the down hill I was pushing the chain into the big ring when the Avid Matchmaker Clamp I had on my shifter broke off and left my shifter to dangle down by my fork. I had to stop to pick it up and held it the rest of the way down the hill and though the maze where I was passed By Brad who was on a party cruise. I stopped again and taped the shifter to my stem. While doing so I was passes back by the second Elite female raider who gave me some encouragement which was a nice booster. As I came through the start/finish I could see most of the Elite field watching me and when I passed the gate and headed back out again I could feel them grimace of me. I rode on getting encouragement from the good folks who were heading down off of the mountain. On one of the sections I noticed Matt a little ways up ahead of me and started to chase the rabbit. However, I was still mentally doubting my ability and zigging when I should have been zagging. I gave Matt all of the encouragement I could through the maze and kept my pace as high as possible trying to real him in. He had his heart in his legs and kept the gap wide all the way to the finish.

It was a hard race to swallow but it was a huge learning experience for me which is what I will take from it. Brad snapped the wrists of the comp singlespeed class beating out the 2007 overall champion and taking 1st. Matt took a respectable second in his class. I took 7th out of 7 finishers and 9 total. Everyone up there was uber cool and I am really looking forward to next season to do more of their races.