Blog

The first race of 3 out of the NY State MTB series is always a lot of fun. The 7.7 km course is partially on private property and due to construction it had to be modified. I liked the new course a lot and I got to pre-ride it the day before. Most of the steeper/longer climbing is right at the beginning; 1 km at 8.8% average. The course has a good mix of power (hammering) and technical sections so the terrain goes from wide dirt roads to very narrow rocky single-track valleys, kind of like riding on a creek but with sharp rocks and a good number of roots. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention, you go through a cave, which is super cool.

I lined up in my new age group Cat 1 40-49 and we lined up with the 50-59 too. The 40-49 is usually a stronger field than my previous field 30-39 so I knew beforehand it was going to be hard. Unfortunately, the conditions changed a lot with a little bit of rain right before my race. I got to position myself 3rd out of the gate and 2nd on the climb and I was feeling good; but unfortunately, I had the wrong tires for the changing conditions. Let's just say that I'm happy I didn't kill myself. I knew I was out of competition since everybody could sort through the roots and rocks better than I could, so I just focused on not crashing and hammer through the power sections. The conditions were challenging but still a lot of fun. I ended up in 7/15 which was way better than what I thought it was going to be.