A Minor Victory and a Lot of Mud

With new perspective on fun, I drove up to Kletsch on a warm Saturday morning. It was less of the mountain bike course it has been in the past, but it still had the hellacious hill run up. A good course and a fun day for the race put on by our friends at Pegasus.

Dave Eckel was in front of me for most of the race, but in the last lap I caught him. I tried to pass him up the rideable hill but he matched my effort. So we rode together to the last set of barriers just meters before the finish. My repaired knee doesn't always like full-speed barriers: it crumples sometimes in that first step off the bike. It happened in Grafton, and I crashed into the barrier.

I rode up next to Dave and decided I was either going to crash or beat him. The knee held, I ran quickly, and sprinted to the line. Dave had a rough remount and finished behind me.

When I drove to today's race in Cambridge at the Camrock County Park, it rained the entire way. I smiled a lot. And when I arrived, I could see the first set of cat 4 masters covered in mud! Oh frabjous day!

I love me my Fangos in the mud! In the first lap, I could actually stay with Ferguson and the boys at the front because of the tires and bike handling. But as the course dried out, the mud became sticky peanut butter. I don't have the power yet to ride through that kind of muck. I understand now why HeMan thought I should get two sets of the Fangos. When I switched bikes midway through the race, the Grifos held nicely but not like their mud brothers.

Eckel pulled away from me today. It's becoming a fun rivalry as he has gotten much better this year. Another big improvement has been Mark McGeen, who won today's race.

Next week is the Halloween cross at Washington Park in Milwaukee, then onto Wizzard Cross at the new venue in Madison. Hopefully, my legs will continue to improve with more races in them. Maybe I'll find some power along the way!