1998 Fall MTB Training Series
ACME Concrete (Nov 22)

by JRA (the mountain biker formerly known as Kevin)

Spud twisted my arm and made me do it. We'd been talking after the last Finley Hills race and I may have mentioned something to the effect that I wished that some people wouldn't show so I would have a chance at finishing in the Top 10 once in my life. Spud got this evil glint to his eyes and suggested that we "race" in the expert category for the ACME race since there are usually less than 10 experts entered for any given race. It didn't sound too bad at the time so I said we'd go for it (as long as there were less than 8 entries)!

Sunday dawned and sure enough, when Spud and I casually strolled up to the check-in table, there were only four people registered for the experts. I knew that a few more would show but hoped it wouldn't be too many. So I went for it and sweatily clutched that blue number in my palm. As the start time crept closer, I saw more and more experts arriving! Nothing to do but try and stay out of the way of everyone behind me. I chugged off into the Chamna trails at the back of the pack. Shortly after we started, Brent Strecker piled into a sagebrush in front of about 5 of us and tried to give himself a nardectomy! He only succeeded in letting the "real" experts ride further away from me.

Up and over the whoop-de-do section and down through the singletrack that I'd worked on just the day before. The course layout was run in a counterclockwise direction and there were a couple of hard oblique turns that you really had to pay attention to. Through the Wood Duck Trail then alongside the road, through the drainage ditch drops and back on the wood-chipped road to the Start. One lap down, three to go.

By this time, I couldn't see anyone in front of me except for Spud ... and he was pulling away as well. The faster Sport class riders started to catch me on my second lap. I managed to not hold them up and popped through the Trees sections. Here's where my one person cheering section made itself known. "Go, expert!" Diane yelled at me. I just shook my head, grinned and kept on pedaling. The beginning part of lap three was where some more Sport riders passed me (obviously). I was following a couple riders through the whoops when I witnessed Tom Bosch stacking up and eating some Mexican cuisine on the trail (tacoed his front wheel on a jump). Craig Fortner was closely following and he grabbed a handful of brakes to try and not run Tom over. Craig almost did a great big OTB move but Tom grabbed Craig's bike as he was reaching the apex of his move and pulled him back down.

The whoops were where I tried to be cool on my last lap. I pulled some air off one of the jumps and landed hard but fine, or so I thought. Almost immediately, I noticed that my rear wheel was rubbing in one section. I knew immediately that I'd broken a spoke somewhere. It wasn't rubbing too much so I continued on and tried to not put any unnecessary side loads on the wheel.

I had to check my computer when I was almost back to the start to make sure I'd done my four laps. Yep, 16.2 miles. Whew! 10th Place Finisher!! (out of 11). I did manage to hold off all but 6-7 Sport riders so I don't feel too bad. It's back to the Sports for me! See you all next time.

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