20 April 2011 - 7:35Singlespeed-apalooza II (Electric Boogaloo)

OK, now for the for reals race report.

It rained all night long. It rained hard. Bleary eyed, we woke up and gathered our things and headed to our customary box store breakfast at Panera. Dough and Ginger met us there, and we all had a good chuckle while we were imagining just how bad the course was going to be.

At race:30, we stood in our various start points, mine being Sport New York North, meaning, if I was from New York or North, this is where I was going to be starting from. There was a Sport Jersey South category that started ahead of us, which I have to call out as unfair. These guys don’t know how to ride.

This year, the course was brand new, but not totally unfamiliar to me. It incorporated a lot of trail from the DH40, and even though it was “wet”, I still felt as if I knew what to do. Except for the “prologue” section. This year, there was about 1.5 miles of what I could only describe as exhibition riding. It was close to the start area, and it double backed onto the race course, and thankfully was not repeated again.

Don’t get me wrong, this was fairly easy stuff to ride, unless you had a whole bunch of trail fodder fumbling at every rock or root in front of you. Oh, and then there was a huge puddle that everyone was trying to be all dainty about passing. Well, I figured I was going to be wet and uncomfortable all day, so I hoped off the bike and waddled through on foot. That water was cold.

I could go on and on about the varying conditions of the trail, that went from mud lahar to hero dirt to pond in the blink of an eye. I wont.

It was awesome. I had a great time, and in spite of myself, managed to keep a good attitude throughout the time I was stuck on my bike. I ended up finishing 28 out of 67 in my class. I checked out my time, and I would have been in the back of the pack in the expert/pro category, but I also heard there was less standing around and waiting for the choads to go between 2 trees in the prologue. Not sure if I am ready to step up yet, but I am strongly considering it. If for nothing more than to start ahead of the barney factor. Meh.

So we get done, and then it’s time to hang out. Dark Horse Cycles does not mess around when it comes to post race nourishment. There were hot dogs galore, and Niner Mike had brought up several kegs of Terrapin beer. It was really awesome to catch up with everyone after the race. Trail conditions were such that everyone had a story, and it was great to trade tales with everyone about the day’s battles.

I’m really stoked to have gotten to see some people I wasn’t expecting to.

Rebecca

Dejay

And of  course, everyone else.

Up next, Return of the Jedi, or Part III