Laddies Loppet

Sam woke up at 4:30am sat morning to make it for the time trial at 10:00.I drove seprately.It was rainy on and off sat and the course was pretty slick.I didn't preride untill about 4:00.Everything except the lake side drops was rideable.The 29er was working well through all the rocks and roots,it was lots-o-fun.Before I prerode though, I took my motorcycle out with Paul Hanson in his Subaru rally car.I followed him down the Marry yellow Head trail which was a perfect rally trail.He was absolutely flying down the trail and I was burying my throttle to keep up.Good thing I kept the 42 tooth ring on the rear.I'm sure he'll post the pics and video he took along the way.I liked when he went down one of the secondary trails and hit a huge waterhole,steam just came pouring out of car and everyone was rolling in the car.After I split up he went back to a sand pit and did a few laps up a berm.
Anyway, Sunday we lined up with alot of fast guys.Me and sam had another bad start with Sam almost getting taken out buy another rider who was cutting him off.Luckily we made a few moves and started moving up right away before the singletrack.I was suprised that no one in front of us dabed to create the usuall slow up.I just stuck on Sams wheel as long as I could which was suicide hill.This is where he bridged up to Brendan Moore.Things were a bit of a blur here but I know I was with Dave Oachs and we ended up catching Tom Miller,Dan Swanson,and Doug Swanson on the long ski trail section about 3/4 into the 1st of 2 laps.I thought Doug was done for but I was wrong as a few min latter he came shooting past me.Going onto the 2nd lap I had a gap on Dave,Dan,and Tom running in 8th place behind Sam who I'm guessing was only about 1-2 min up.It wasn't untill suicide hill that Tom had caught me and he was pounding the singletrack.about 10-15 min latter I heared Dan who was gaining on me crash hard.I thought I had him bagged too,but noooo.He bridged on the ski trail and passed me before the last lakeside drop section.I stuck his wheel for a while but he slowly pulled away.At this point I was running scared because I knew Dave O.was close.I held him off though and came in 1 min behind Dan and Tom and only 2 min behind Sam.I just made the payout finally and made $40.I was pleased with myself and rode a solid race.Oh,and the weather was perfect.Things cleared out nicely and you couldn't ask for a better day.
Gota give a big thanks to Jay Richards and the family for hosting one the best races of the year.Its nice that everyone can chill and socialize after the races and not be in a rush to get home like all the other races.