Homage to Ice
Good first outing with the mountain bike on some great trails at Mansfield this afternoon. A healthy dose of familiar faces in the start corral had everyone guessing as to who might have a beautiful race. The roads were mainly front-loaded which had me wondering about the claim of 65% singletrack, but it was definitely there.
Managed to avoid the huge rut that swallowed me whole last year, although some others weren’t so lucky. The self-serve feed zone worked well, getting in and out in a respectable sub-ten-seconds with a bottle and Dole-brand carbohydrate/electrolyte replacement.
The sandy trails/bald-ish rear tire combo resulted in some sliding around, but still kept the rubber side down. Definitely not out of control, and a reasonable tradeoff for less rolling resistance. The top end is slowly making an appearance which should come in handy somewhere. Spent about a lap and a half trading spots with Steve Noble, but that came to an end after catching Jacob and testing the waters with an antisocial attack.
The invitation to step onto the podium was nice, though I was just as pleased about the steady efforts I could sustain, and being generally comfortable in the singletrack after being off it for a while.
Post race activities included gabbing about the pitfalls of tandem racing, and flawless catches of at least six airborne paper plates.
I’m quite excited for some more racing at Mansfield in two weeks, but will break out the ‘cross bike again for Paris-to-Ancaster next Sunday.
