Double header part 1
Yep,the big duo was this weekend. It turned out to be a supper fun weekend despite all the driving and hecticness of doing everything nessisary for the races.Friday we met up with Mike and Jeff at Spirit Mt to preride the course.You could only see 50yards in front of you because of the fog.It was wet and dreary.After an hour ride we headed out to Michigan.
Sat morning we woke up to rain and cool temps.I was disapointed but it soon cleared up and was fine.I lined up on the front row and on the outside for the first corner( I learned my lesson on that one).Off the start I stuck behind Jay Richards but as soon as we hit the first hill everyone pulled away and I started to see the more familiar faces that I can keep up with.Out of the 1000 riders you always find yourself riding with people you know.Sam kept me in his sights for the first part of the race.Which was the hardest.The sandpits and bumpy trails are borderline ridiculous.A little bit before the middle of the race we hit these sandy hills that most people couldn't climb .I ended up getting off and Sarah Kylander Johnson comes around me and makes it up.Sam caught up at this point and we all kind of grouped together along with Cole House.Shortly after the sand climb I looked up the trail and saw this like 100 yard hill with every biker on it walking.It was steep and it had large rocks mixed with sand so it was even hard to walk it,let alone when your calves start pinging from the change of activity.After two of those hills me and Sam dropped back and decided to take it easy for a bit.We weren't even halfway there and it feels like we've been racing forever.After a couple min. of sitting up, Ron Raymond (Bill Raymonds brother, for those of you who know who I'm talking about) comes buy us with a couple of guys.We hopped on the train gave it another go.We caught back up to Sarah and our other previous group.Sarah was glad because she told me that they weren't working good together untill me,Sam,and Ron came in.There was a nice road section that we were starting to feel better on ,and me and Sam paced up the hills while Ron came around when it flattened out.Cole somehow pulled away with a guy and I never saw him again.Ron was the strongest of the day.He took some monster pulls for a long time.When it came down to the last 5 miles Sarah dropped back a bit due to some cramping and our group was down to about 6. Ron let another guy go to the front and told me not to pull through .I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but I was pretending to suffer on a couple of the climbs when I'd come along side of him.If I went on a breakaway It would have been hard to make it stick since most of the end is either flat or down.Ron went down in a huge downhill sandpit and our group fell to 3 or 4.But he eventually caught back up for the last mile which was flat and a road finish.I was leading prior to the one mile marker . I let Sam take the lead so I could recover for a sprint.With a half mile to go Ron went to the front with another guy followed by Sam then me.Sam said he wouldn't have anything for a sprint.I was feeling primed though and wanted a go at it.In the last 100 yards I slammed my gears and went for it.It was a perfect photo finish.We all surged our bikes out like a road race.The spectators were amazing.Its fun to go down the finishing stretch with hundreds of people cheering you on.
I have to give props to Caleb for taking 20th,Sarah for only being 30 seconds back and taking the womens win,Jay Richards took 11th,Ron who by far did most of the work,and of course Jeff, though looking for a win got isolated by Matter and Tristan to take 4th overall.And what about the Eppins taking the overall win on a tandem!Whats up with that.But good job to all the MN's who took the trip and put in a good effort for a grueling race.
Time-2:47,29th overall,Sam-32nd overall
Sat morning we woke up to rain and cool temps.I was disapointed but it soon cleared up and was fine.I lined up on the front row and on the outside for the first corner( I learned my lesson on that one).Off the start I stuck behind Jay Richards but as soon as we hit the first hill everyone pulled away and I started to see the more familiar faces that I can keep up with.Out of the 1000 riders you always find yourself riding with people you know.Sam kept me in his sights for the first part of the race.Which was the hardest.The sandpits and bumpy trails are borderline ridiculous.A little bit before the middle of the race we hit these sandy hills that most people couldn't climb .I ended up getting off and Sarah Kylander Johnson comes around me and makes it up.Sam caught up at this point and we all kind of grouped together along with Cole House.Shortly after the sand climb I looked up the trail and saw this like 100 yard hill with every biker on it walking.It was steep and it had large rocks mixed with sand so it was even hard to walk it,let alone when your calves start pinging from the change of activity.After two of those hills me and Sam dropped back and decided to take it easy for a bit.We weren't even halfway there and it feels like we've been racing forever.After a couple min. of sitting up, Ron Raymond (Bill Raymonds brother, for those of you who know who I'm talking about) comes buy us with a couple of guys.We hopped on the train gave it another go.We caught back up to Sarah and our other previous group.Sarah was glad because she told me that they weren't working good together untill me,Sam,and Ron came in.There was a nice road section that we were starting to feel better on ,and me and Sam paced up the hills while Ron came around when it flattened out.Cole somehow pulled away with a guy and I never saw him again.Ron was the strongest of the day.He took some monster pulls for a long time.When it came down to the last 5 miles Sarah dropped back a bit due to some cramping and our group was down to about 6. Ron let another guy go to the front and told me not to pull through .I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but I was pretending to suffer on a couple of the climbs when I'd come along side of him.If I went on a breakaway It would have been hard to make it stick since most of the end is either flat or down.Ron went down in a huge downhill sandpit and our group fell to 3 or 4.But he eventually caught back up for the last mile which was flat and a road finish.I was leading prior to the one mile marker . I let Sam take the lead so I could recover for a sprint.With a half mile to go Ron went to the front with another guy followed by Sam then me.Sam said he wouldn't have anything for a sprint.I was feeling primed though and wanted a go at it.In the last 100 yards I slammed my gears and went for it.It was a perfect photo finish.We all surged our bikes out like a road race.The spectators were amazing.Its fun to go down the finishing stretch with hundreds of people cheering you on.
I have to give props to Caleb for taking 20th,Sarah for only being 30 seconds back and taking the womens win,Jay Richards took 11th,Ron who by far did most of the work,and of course Jeff, though looking for a win got isolated by Matter and Tristan to take 4th overall.And what about the Eppins taking the overall win on a tandem!Whats up with that.But good job to all the MN's who took the trip and put in a good effort for a grueling race.
Time-2:47,29th overall,Sam-32nd overall
posted by Eric O. at 3:57 PM
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