MNSCS #2

1 pm today marked the start of the second MNSCS race, Rochester Cycling Steeple Chase. A strong field showed up despite a WORS race taking place on a pan flat course in Wausau. The course included a bumpy hilly prologue followed by the start of a really fun lap. The lap was about 4.5 miles, which started out with a technical off camber descent down the side of a hill. At the bottom was some flat bumpy double track, and the lap ends with a singletrack climb right up the side of the hill.

Ok, so the race start was fast and furious as usual. About 10 minutes in, a select group had formed Chris Fisher, Brian Eppen, Me, Paul Hanson, Justin Rienhart, Jeff Hall and my brother.

We stayed together until the end of the lap when Jeff put in an attack. Unfortunately, I was out of position, and I couldn’t chase…a little further along and one rock to the pedal later, I was in the superman pose (going over my handlebars)…DOH! My front brake lever was bent down making brake modulation quite a challenge. I chased back and spent too much effort doing so. In the 4th lap, Paul and Justin went off the front. When Paul went, I was again out of position. After a quick pass in the single track, I was able to run down Justin with Ben on my wheel, but I couldn’t see Paul. Ben was riding super strong until he held a big yardsale putting him in his words “15 feet into the woods.” Justin and I traded punches and I started to cramp really bad. I sat up, let him by and drank most of my bottle. About 5 minutes later the cramps subsided. I was able to chase Justin down and put in an attack on the final climb to take 3rd place. Jeff and Paul were 1 and 2. Ben and Fisher rolled in 5th and 6th.
The ugly-pain-face Award goes to Ben as usual ...

I am not displeased with the result, but I did make two big mistakes, hydration and positioning. I will do my best to fix those two issues next time!
Results here http://www.mnscs.com/html/raceresults.asp

See www.skinnyski.com for some of these pics and more.

Next up is Buck Hill on Thursday.