I have not fallen off the face of the racing scene as one racer suggested to me last weekend at Chequamegon 100! I finished out the
season exactly how I wanted to with 2 really fun race weekends.=) I also ended up with around 25 races on the year... right where I wanted to be.
After MDH100, I did a weekday off road time trial (at Murphy
Hanrehan) and my time was the same as before MDH so I was pretty sure I avoided
any detrimental effects from the heat.
Next up was the Laddies Loppet stage race at Maplelag where
I won all three races (Time Trail, Short Track, and XC all in a 2 day period
for those not familiar with the race).
This further assured me that I indeed had quit at the right time out in MDH. That said, the margin of victory was SLIM in all three races to
a very fast Jeff Hall. He really pushed me
up there and it showed in the XC time gap we had of around 7 minutes to 3rd
place (and we had a sprint finish)! It is
great to see Jeff back at it and he confirmed his speed by finishing in the
chase group at Chequamegon the next week.
The final goal of the season for me was to rock the Chequamegon
100, and I had plenty of MDH frustration to take out on the course! This is 100 mile race on ALL the fun challenging
trails up in the Chequamegon forest (80% singletrack or so). The fastest finishing times in previous years
was over 8 hours, so this is no gravel road race. We
lined up on a crisp morning and I gave it a go at the start riding off the front alone. I ended up with a finishing time of 7:45 or
so, about 30 min ahead of second place. Unfortunately,
I couldn’t stay for the festivities after because I had to head to China the
next morning.
The Superfly 100 was piloted on both weekends and I continue
to believe that is the fastest, best bikes out there for XC. The Enve wheels also continue to blow me away
with their stiffness and weight. I
actually have to adjust to how stiff they are relative to my other wheels!
Right now I am on a whirlwind tour of Asia. I am to tired to write more other than to say
racing the e-bikes each morning has still been entertaining (for me and them=)
Until next time....
