SCOLETRAIN

WORS Border Battle - River Falls

My week of vacation ended on a high note with a strong Pro/Elite finish at the Border Battle this past weekend! Again it was another great weekend with my Adventure 212/Specialized teammates for pre-race rituals with a few good laps of the course and dinner on Saturday night in downtown Hudson. Afterwards a small group of the guys assembled in the hotel parking lot for some non-alcoholic tailgating bike prep while the ladies headed out to raid a few stores in the area. We only got heckled a few times by passing cars, but had more than enough entertainment with Jitters fabricating and solving minor team bike issues. We should almost have enough material for a reality TV show at the end of this race season...

The course for the Border Battle featured one climb at the start of each lap and another rockier climb about halfway through the 5.5 mile lap along with plenty of very fast roller coaster like singletrack. The start went well for me from my third row call up as I was able to get clipped into my pedal in a timely manor to get off the line in the top quarter of the 70 plus rider field.

The first few laps were uneventful as I rode great in the singletrack, but struggled on the climbs and always had to bridge back to the small group of about six on the ridge each lap. It helped to have Justin Piontek in the mix as I've coached him for the last few years and he saved me a few times on Sunday as I tried to stay with him as long as my old body would let me.

On the the 4th and final lap I finally stayed close enough on the start climb to get into the singletrack at the head of the half dozen riders that I had been around most of the day. This plan worked well until I caught a root in a fast left handed corner with my rear tire and high sided at the front which led to getting t-boned and slammed into a tree. Not a good thing for my mental state at this point with being so close to the end, but I stayed at the front as nobody was able to get through the roadblock I created and it was just a matter of settling my heart rate down again and staying on two wheels...

With one more gravel climb to the ridge top I was at the front as we turned the corner for the remaining up and down fast singletrack section before the finish. My big surprise came when I heard my teammate Ryan's voice as we headed towards the woods again! I let Ryan lead and I put my total trust with him as I glued myself to his rear wheel and we gradually gapped the others in the last few miles before rolling through the finish line in 18th and 19th overall respectfully. As a team, we placed five of us in the top twenty overall with Mikee 2nd, Darrin 3rd and Chris 10th overall! RESULTS Congrats also to the A212 women for their performances and a big thanks to all the support we get from our A212 team/sponsors at the races and to Karen Piontek for the great water bottle hand-ups each lap!!!

Pedal on...