Vulture's Knob Double Down Enduro
Next on the list of Ohio races was Vulture's Knob Double Down Enduro. This was a double distance cross country race on a rather technical course. Vulture's Knob is the site of my very first mountain bike race, as well as Lee-Ann's first. Also one of our favorite courses. A technical mix of speed, climbing, and some crazy bridges...The Knob is forever evolving. It's truly an xc playground. I love V-Knob, I love long races, and I love the heat. This day I got to mix all three into a cocktail of fun and pain! Temps were again near 90 with high humidity. My girl LA was the only female brave enough to enter the expert class, everyone else sandbagged to avoid death by heat exhaustion. Lining up at the start I was excited to race my old rivals and my favorite racecourse of all time. Finally after some jibber jabbering by the race officials we were off and racing. I got a great start out front and promptly dropped my chain entangling it in the crankset. I dismounted and repaired, all the while being passed by wave after wave of slower racers. I lost valuable time as I waited to pass in the tight singletrack. Not panicking yet though, this was a double distance race and I had the better part of 3 hours to make up my time. Also coming off of the Arizona Mountain bike series I had plenty of fitness and heat tolerance to spare....so I bowed my head to the gods of speed and went to work. I was focused and riding well, however could not help but think of how a little preparation would have had me at the front of the pack already. Old lesson learned over again. About half-way into the race I started to get some time gaps yelled to me, I was in 2nd place only about 3 minutes behind 1st. "Wow" I thought, "a lot of racers must have dropped out" as I did'nt recall passing too many. Now was my chance, but the gap was growing and no matter what I tried I was unable to close in on first. I ended up finishing second just a few minutes out of first after nearly 50 miles of racing. The winner was not even able to make it to the podium as he was suffering from severe dehydration and /or heat exhaustion. Later looking at my lap times they were pretty equal to the winner with the exception of my mechanical lap. This could have been a really great competition! Oh well, I will fight another day. 
Lee-Ann showed off her solid base fitness by finishing strong in the heat. Taking her loyal dog, Pueblo along on her final 8 mile lap. After the race we got to hang out with some really great, long time friends, the dj began spinning some beats, the laser's blasted and the kegs flowed. I was reminded of all the reasons I grew to love racing bicycles. The friendship, nature, fresh air, endorphins....the list just goes on and on. Before we blew out of town I got schooled in the art of road crits, visited with the famdamily, went to Tennessee just to visit Burrito Meal, and had all different kinds of fun! Next up is Barn Burner....man I have some catching up to do!!!
Next on the list of Ohio races was Vulture's Knob Double Down Enduro. This was a double distance cross country race on a rather technical course. Vulture's Knob is the site of my very first mountain bike race, as well as Lee-Ann's first. Also one of our favorite courses. A technical mix of speed, climbing, and some crazy bridges...The Knob is forever evolving. It's truly an xc playground. I love V-Knob, I love long races, and I love the heat. This day I got to mix all three into a cocktail of fun and pain! Temps were again near 90 with high humidity. My girl LA was the only female brave enough to enter the expert class, everyone else sandbagged to avoid death by heat exhaustion. Lining up at the start I was excited to race my old rivals and my favorite racecourse of all time. Finally after some jibber jabbering by the race officials we were off and racing. I got a great start out front and promptly dropped my chain entangling it in the crankset. I dismounted and repaired, all the while being passed by wave after wave of slower racers. I lost valuable time as I waited to pass in the tight singletrack. Not panicking yet though, this was a double distance race and I had the better part of 3 hours to make up my time. Also coming off of the Arizona Mountain bike series I had plenty of fitness and heat tolerance to spare....so I bowed my head to the gods of speed and went to work. I was focused and riding well, however could not help but think of how a little preparation would have had me at the front of the pack already. Old lesson learned over again. About half-way into the race I started to get some time gaps yelled to me, I was in 2nd place only about 3 minutes behind 1st. "Wow" I thought, "a lot of racers must have dropped out" as I did'nt recall passing too many. Now was my chance, but the gap was growing and no matter what I tried I was unable to close in on first. I ended up finishing second just a few minutes out of first after nearly 50 miles of racing. The winner was not even able to make it to the podium as he was suffering from severe dehydration and /or heat exhaustion. Later looking at my lap times they were pretty equal to the winner with the exception of my mechanical lap. This could have been a really great competition! Oh well, I will fight another day. 
Lee-Ann showed off her solid base fitness by finishing strong in the heat. Taking her loyal dog, Pueblo along on her final 8 mile lap. After the race we got to hang out with some really great, long time friends, the dj began spinning some beats, the laser's blasted and the kegs flowed. I was reminded of all the reasons I grew to love racing bicycles. The friendship, nature, fresh air, endorphins....the list just goes on and on. Before we blew out of town I got schooled in the art of road crits, visited with the famdamily, went to Tennessee just to visit Burrito Meal, and had all different kinds of fun! Next up is Barn Burner....man I have some catching up to do!!!
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