Me decending to the finish.
Cameron doing the same a few minutes ahead in 2nd.Katie and I decided to head south to Tulsa for this Memorial weekend after hearing from Cameron Chambers about the Keystone MTB race that had a pretty huge purse for a bike race. We loaded up early Saturday and headed to the course for a pre-ride, as soon as we pulled in a loaded down car containg the Chamber's and friends wheeled in and we all headed out for a pre-ride. I quickly found that although I wanted to give the new bike a test race, this was not the course for it. This place was rocky, the kind of rocks that keep you from pedaling all that much. After a pre-ride, Katie and I departed to explore Tulsa. We checked out the sights and went to PF Changs for some dinner. The race started up a long hill, I slotted in one spot behind Ray Hall, who was the promoter and the fasted guy in Oklahoma. I really wasnt pushing all that hard when at the top a bunch of guys tried to get by, I entered the trail on Cam's wheel and we watched as Ray was riding away because of some Mad Duck guy was letting a big gap open. Anyways... after Cam got around him, it took me awhile to get by and it became obvious that I was substantially slower through the rocky sections on my hardtail than the other two were on their fullys so I just settled in and rode around for 2 hours in 3rd place. It was a fun course and a great race put on by http://www.918xc.com/ , next year though, a little more suspension would be in order.
The new XTC Advanced SL worked great all things considered. It should be perfect for the USCUPs where there is a whole lot more climbing and the courses are typically quite a bit smoother. I rode some Michelin DryXC tires which took a beating, so Im happy they seem to be pretty flat proof, which is always something I have a problem with.
hey man,
ReplyDeletecongrats on the race. I wanted to inform you that we are doing a race down here in Emporia on July 19th. I know that conflicts with your nationals race, but the rest of us mere mortals don't have to worry about things like stars and stripes jersey's! Anyways, the link to the race info is crampalexanderrace.blogspot.com. I would greatly appreciate it if you would do a quick write up about it and add the link. Thanks a ton man! I should see you at Rhett's Run if you still plan on going to that.