The horsepower. Shaun, Me, and Joe after the short track race.
(Photos from the weekend.)
Mesa State’s Mountain Bike Race was this last weekend. What an adventure!
I had a hard time finding a ride, but found a car to join with Zak and Piotr. We made it to Grand Junction with great fanfare. I was in a good mood for the drive, Piotr and Zak were quick to join in the fun. We had a great time enjoying the Baconator at Wendy’s, getting lost in the Grand Junction Airport, asking strangers “are you bikers?”, starting a fire without matches or lighter, getting confused by small tents and blowing away in the wind.
Friday night we camped right near the short track course. (Also near the airport, and 4×4 trail I learned while laying in the tent.) We woke up, er, we came out of the tents to rain. (Waking up requires sleeping, and the wind didn’t help me out with that one.) We packed up quickly not to get stuck or our stuff to get too muddy. (Good call Zak!) Piotr raced the C’s Short Track, after eating his breakfast of champion- Gatoraid, and the rain only picked up. As they finished Piotr’s race they postponed the following races, and moved them to a field by the fair grounds. That’s where the mud action continued. (Only after we entertained our homeless selves by hanging out at Starbucks for about two hours. After we failed to cook noodles in the parking lot of a bank.)
This short track race was my first Men’s A mountain bike race. It was weird, as with that much mud on a bike, it was although everyone was riding $10 Walmart bikes that had been left in the weather for years. Derailleurs were skipping, and shifting was not pleasant. I was happy with my racing, and my room for improvement. We were adopted by a house of Mesa State riders, they let us shower off, wash the bikes, and sleep well Saturday night at their house. (Thanks Steve, Cole and the folks whom I have forgotten names.)
Wake up to a crazy cross country race. The course was quite muddy from Saturday’s rain. Mud made plenty of the course un-passible via bike. This leads to cleats full of mud that then don’t go back into pedals. (Further leads to shoes that can’t unclip easily from pedals.) The A’s race pushed me for 3 laps of 6.7 miles. This course had at least two spots where you had to haul your bike over two foot high rocks that were quite restricting. Tired legs, non-hiking-mud-filled shoes made these more notable then I suspect they usually are. I had one wreak cruising a downhill rocky dirt section, not really technical. I just took the turn a little to fast, and couldn’t get the feet out in time to prevent skin loss as I lost the front wheel. If you look at the results I held down the back of the race for sure. (Note name was misspelled as Madison if you’re really looking.) With the sun out for the race, the mud dried and I’m sure my last lap was also my fastest.
The real world hit hard Sunday night as I had a large assignment due for Scientific Computing. Working with a group of 3 others, we failed to complete it by midnight and submitted what we had. (Not a group project to boot.) A test in Technology Entrepreneurship then welcomed me back Monday. This is another crazy week, but Monday we have off for Fall Break. Hooray. Now if I can survive until Friday at midnight.
Don’t miss the photos from the weekend. (Thanks to Kathryn and Piotr for taking pictures while I was racing.)
