SCOLETRAIN

Alterra Coffee WORS #7 Mudfest

The worst of the mud.

The lap/finish climb. It looks easy from this view.

Little brother chugging through the mud to his best comp finish this season.

Elite start call ups.

A big thanks today for the bottle hand ups and encouragement from the one and only great Mountain Goat today as I tried to coax whatever strength I had from my half-baked legs at another mudder of a race. With my mind set on just getting to the finish to get another series race in for points, I actually had no idea where or how I would finish at this race since my riding has been quite lackluster since last weeks 24-9 disaster. In the end I crawled across the line 19th overall in the elite field and 3rd in my age group. The mud was good and bad at times with my biggest concern being the total amount of wear and tear on the bike. I did have one moment on the last lap, we did five, where my chain over shifted the cassette and jammed between the spokes and my rear hub flange. I started breathing again after I jumped off my bike and saw the derailleur still hanging in its proper place and with one easy pull the chain was back where it should be on the cassette and I pedal up the climb and had a good laugh about it. For this next week it looks like I'll be completely overhauling my bike as this is probably the last mud race it will survive without a good amount of TLC. Also, if you're interested in info about the next WORS race check back Tuesday night and I should have pictures and a good description of what we'll all see in two weeks for the WORS Cup course as I'm heading down with Don to help out with the course. Great race today to all those who were allowed to play in the mud...

Lonely Podium as I wait for 2nd place Jeff Melcher and class winner Cam Kirkpatrick.

The worst part of the whole day. Cleaning off layers of mud baked on by the heat & humidity.

The aftermath

Mark's 50 lb race machine.