Monday, August 3, 2009

Camp Ingawanis Race

I put a number plate on my bike last Sunday up in Waverly, and actually felt like I raced my bike! It was fun again, finally, to try to beat people. Fun to have a strategy for passing or sitting on for a while. Fun to have fun! This was only my second time racing since last August at Seven Oaks, and I guess I can relax about my arm/hand now, since neither seemed to bother me during the action. A great feeling since the surgeon who did my work just released me from his care on the Friday before, I was loving that for sure. The trails were fast and dry, and I decided to leave my poor man's niner in the van and ride my 26" wheeled KHS. I think I made a good choice since the course is all twisty singletrack. I was sitting sixth wheel behind 5 niners for most of the first two laps, and I could see their lines were very different from mine. I think I was able to cut in harder and for sure was carrying more speed and momentum out of corners than the niner guys were. I ended up picking off all but one of these guys as the laps ran out. Hard to say if this was a great niner trail or not, but it is a GREAT trail for mountain biking. To think we only rode half of the system up there is crazy. Those guys have it made. I would rather have that trail in my immediate area than I would something like S.O. which I love, but something about fast and twisty is more interesting than steep and off-camber. A night race in Waverly, say 6PM to 6AM would rock! Plenty of facilities, great trails, awesome people. Perhaps the state could do with a second 24 hour event? Quick choppy write up, time to get ready for a week in the Okoboji/Minnesota area. Later! Travel Gravel!

5 comments:

Captain Bob said...

Glad you could make it to the race and have a great time.

That's awesome that you're healing so well.

Thanks!

john said...

Good to see you at the Scout Camp. Great trails, for sure. The guys did a lot of work to make this thing happen.

B I D W E L L said...

Nice Job! Funny, a couple of us were talking 12 or 24 at that spot.. hmmmmm

djdau@walnutel.net said...

GRAVELO RULES!!! -Big D

Travel Gravel said...

I had so much fun last week that I'm going to race again this weekend. Should be nice and hot,like the year we raced at Brushy Creek the weekend after Corey Stringer died. Everyone was freaked out about how hot it was and some quit early, fearing the same fate. It's only sweat, right? Later!