mount du lac extravaganza

Well we decided to leave early and camp the night before this was a good idea not only for easy pre race prep but more importantly we got to night ride. Damn that was fun too bad my second light joel borrowed lost its juice on one lap or we could have done a second lap.
Riding at night spawned an idea of mine to put on a race either wors or mnscs that is totally at night. i suspect a weekend night fri or sat would work and it would involve camping/party afterwards. but enough on that for now on to the race.

Du lac started us out right up a hill half the distance of manhandler and then right into a long extended up hill which wasnt so shabby itself. 8 of us blew out front and stayed there for the most of the race. me and clayton hooked up maybe less than a quarter into the first lap and pretty much stayed together for the rest of the race.

again we had a guy show up for one race who was pretty strong who lead all of the race. the first lap was a battle between me and pat and andy who are both penn cycle riders. there was 2 peace coffee guys also in front and a jr rider from flanders.

the guy from peace coffee who beat me last week faded during the first lap. andy dropped back also. the remaining peace coffee rider burped air during me and claytons steady pulling up to the lead group of him the flanders kid and pat.

so by the third lap me and clayton started picking it up and clayton pulled maybe 5 bike links in front of me and i wasnt able to catch back up to him for most of the lap. we past the flanders kid a 3rd into the 4th lap and were able to see pat maybe 1/2 way into the last lap.

coming into the final twisting sweltering single track i kept yelling at clayton to "pull from the well" cuz i thought he actual had the speed to catch pat. i turned it up also but wasnt sure i could catch him.

well i did pick it up i guess, cuz coming out of the trees into the first part of the final uphill i saw clayton and pat. Well i just put the hammer down and kept it in secound as long as i could and started to gain on them. i passed clayton on the first 1/4 of the hill and pat just a bit after.

pat picked it up and came back at me on the last 1/4 and i matched him almost to the crest and he had just a touch more and he got to the top first. so going into the final switchback dh i didnt fight him for position he earned that spot in front of me.

so we had a steller day! i got 2nd in age and 3rd overall. it was so fulfilling! i felt great physically!



there was only one good biff which was during the tree down hill on the 3rd lap clayton washed out his front tire and went down i came up fast in a blaze but was giving him distance so i could react if he fell. lucky id did cuz i nearly hit him as he stood up. in the flury he moved up trail as i went up trail to go around him. luckily i only caught a smidgen of his tire and didnt catch his fingers in my spokes. he said he had felt his fingers lightly brush them god that would have fucken sucked if we would have had a team mate taken out a team mate!