What a weekend! Two days after the first race of the 2012 WORS series and I'm still finding mud to chip off my poor mountain bike. We all know now that the Iola course only absorbs a certain amount of rainfall before it turns into a soupy mud bog. Too many people were optimistic that the sandy soil would handle anything that mother nature could throw at it over the weekend...we were all very wrong!
Saturday's pre-ride was perfect with mid 50 temps, tacky dirt, and little sand. I only rode a few laps as my legs were still feeling the Cohutta 100 from the previous weekend. One lap was with my A212 teammates and the other was with Justin and Ben who I coach. The traffic was unbelievable in a good way because of all the younger racers out on the course either by themselves or with adults. Actually just about everyone is younger than me when it comes to racing mountain bikes these days! Luckily I can still trick my old body into thinking that it's many years younger once in a great while when I toe a starting line.
Race day brought plenty of rain and I knew it might turn into a mudfest when they weren't allowing vehicles into the parking field. After a short warm up I rolled up to the start line and decided that all I needed to do was have fun and to ijust ride my bike. My start was midpack as I slipped, splashed, crashed, and ran through different sections of the four lap race. In the end my race plan/attitude worked out pretty well as I rolled across the finish line in 21st out of 60 Pro/Elite finishers. A great day overall with the muddy conditions! I Felt comfortable from the start, had excellent A212 team support (thanks Niki & Timster) and my Specialized Epic 29er performed flawlessly even though it weighed over 30lbs at the finish. Despite the lousy weather, Team A212/Specialized placed four women (2nd-5th) and two men on the overall Pro/Elite podiums for the day. Thanks again to all our sponsors this year that make racing possible and lots of fun! Good luck cleaning bikes this week...
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