Tymore Park Challenge Campmor Headlands to Highlands Race #2 Lagrangeville, NY 5/18/2008
This one was not on my schedule for 2008. However, my DNF at Greenbrier left me in need of a qualifier for Mt. Snow. A bit of quick research and networking suggested the 6 mile XC course at Tymor Park would be worth the 3 hour drive. The course is actually pseudo-private and is mostly locals only. The clarity of the trail maintenance definitely gave the feel of riding on less than public property.
Anyhow, I arrived at the park with plenty of time to spare and decided to do a complete lap for my warm up. The course started on a flat grass straightaway that quickly turned to gravel and stone. I felt great at the start and was just following a wheel and sitting in fifth place as we made the first turn uphill into some rooty singletrack.
I was out of my neighborhood and had never ridden with any of these guys before. The guy in front of me slowed down considerably in the singletrack leaving the front three guys quite a bit of room to advance. The track was super rooty and rocky and passing was difficult. I waited about a minute for the racer in front of me to pick up the pace or let me by. Neither happened so I sort of made my own track around him.
Got going pretty good again and could see the lead three in the distance (preriding the whole course was definitely worth it). Of course at that point there was class traffic to contend with and I got caught behind a couple of groups from the classes that went of before my class (Expert 30-39).
By this time the fifth place rider caught up to me. We rode through the traffic together and eventually caught and passed third place. It started raining pretty good during the third (last) lap. I took a little spill over a slanted log bridge and never caught back up. Ended up in a solid fourth place (out of 22 starters). All in all a worth while trip. Made the payout and qualified for Mt.Snow.
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