Fort Rock Revenge

[Jake]

You look at the mileage on this race and you think 16 miles, piece of cake; after 30 at Bradbury this will be nothing. WRONG! This was the EFTA race  equivalent of the WWF smack-down. 16 miles of bone jarring rocks and roots that took everything to just hold onto the bars.

This time I new I needed a good start so I entered the woods in 4th and that is just where I ended up in to the end. The first lap seemed to go on forever, but by the end I was ready for more. I had to stop at the water station to fill up a bottle, since I lost one somewhere in the boney carnage of the course. The second lap sped by and I had fun just trying to clean stuff I messed up before. I passed a bunch of NEBC guys who were just struggling with the technical stuff, it was clearly not a roady course. Every mile or so I would see people fixing flats on the side of the trail and each time I was glad I had filled the tires up to 40psi. Sure I was bouncing all over the place, but no flats was worth it specially on the single speed. Just like Bradbury my left wrist was killing me and I have no idea why; I'll have to work on wrist strength at the gym this week.

Only a few times have I been on a ride or race where I said to myself, full suspension would be nice and this was one of those. It would have been nice to have 120 up front and 3 in the rear. Speaking of suspension when I got home I noticed some oily dirt on my shock. In 3 years I've had this shock I have never had to touch it, Fox just makes bomb proof shocks, but I guess all the pounding was to much for it. I'll drop it off at the shop for some triage and new seals tomorrow.

Mostly road riding for the next 2 weeks to prepare for the NH100. I'll get in a century next Saturday, might even do it on the new single speed I built up for the road. Who needs gears anyway?

[littlebyke]

Well this is my first race this year and my first representing Blesso and my first in the expert category. I probably didn't repesent too well because sorry to say I went into it with the fact that I was not there to race. It was a training ride for me and Junko for our 24 hrs of singlespeeding GG next week. I didn't want to get totally wasted or injured before such an event. But let me tell you this is the best EFTA race ever. I love the course. It suites me fine because it was so technical. Smartly, knowing this place from riding it I brought suspension and gears. I'm not a fast racer anyways but damm I can ride this stuff as I watched others struggle thru it. The start was pretty fast so I lost track of the 3 expert women in front of us very quickly. Next year I'll train to ride faster in the begining just to see what these women do once they the technical stuff. I'm pretty sure I could compete with them then. I consider myself an expert rider but not an expert racer. I'll have to work on that for future racers. Like Jake, the challenge in the second lap was to try to clean everything that I missed the first time but I ended up getting tired and a bit clumsey so I didn't get over everything. Junko and I rode the entire race together and probably finished last but we had fun. Now I'll have to wear the colors proud for GG and NH100.

[Scotty K]

Second race of the year, after my DNF due to a back injury at Harding Hill.  I knew it would be technical, so it's one race that I put lighter, 2.0 tires on the Ellsworth.  I'm standing around with everyone, waiting for them to call up the Sport Vet II when I realize that I forgot my CO2 pump.  They were sending out the juniors, so I figured that I had time and rushed back to the car, grab it, head back and....they're lining up the masters (shit!).  So, I start in dead last, going hard to catch up.  I managed to catch and pass a few people, not including about 10 people I saw changing flats, and paced with the first and second place masters riders in the first 5-6 miles when sure enough: pinch flat.  Did a quick fix and was riding with some women and the fifth place master.  Caught up with Frank, who had crashed bad and was shaken up.  Talked to him for a minute and took off again.  By the start of the second lap, I realized that my race was done, so I decided to enjoy the second lap.  Like Jake and Michelle, tried to clean everything.  Even did one do over.  Head butted a boulder, but no crashes.  Still managed to come in 12th at 2:38.  Not bad for a half-ass effort.

Great, challenging course though.  You could NOT relax and cruise except for a couple of short sections.  Hopefully, next year will be better