Crashing, Racing, and Proof Chivalry is NOT Dead...

Topher making his bike faster, with Chris day dreaming.


Before the past few races I was doing openers the day before. It didn't seem to be working for me so this week I just rode easy for an hour. It couldn't hurt. Matt and I, with a brief appearance by Ted Logic, hit White Clay. The ride was going well, we going easy and it felt pretty good. We hit the skills trail, we were talking and riding when all of the sudden my front wheel hit a soft spot and washed out on me. I hit hard, first a tree then the ground. My shoulder looked like raw hamburger and I managed to take a chunk out of my shin. We rode on but I was a little ginger at first, my shin was hurting pretty bad. After a while the pain eased up and we finished our ride.

Today was the Iron Hill race. Iron Hill was the spot my first ever mountain bike race. It was cool and since then I have never missed Iron Hill. Today would be no exception, even though I thought about bagging it.
The trails were in great shape and the weather was dry, but man was it fucking hot. Wooden Wheels was well represented today and everybody raced their asses off. It was good to see folks gathered together before the race and then stick around after for a nice little cook out. By the way a special thanks to Johnny and Karen for bringing the grill and there kick ass chicken.

My race went like this, there was a nice single speed class today. Topher who rolled away with the win, super fast Nick took 2nd, Todd battled past Ben (not Yoder) for 3rd, and I came in 5th. The class was also graced by Ted Logic, Fitzy, Joel aka Gwadzilla, and Chris from the bike shop.

Lap 1, the start was supposed to be civilized but as we were casually cruising up the fire road Todd took off. This brought an immediate reaction from Nick and Topher. I went with the move for a while but decided the pace would kill me later so I settled into my own groove. I felt pretty good, I made the big climb up Fuzzy's and rolled through with a 24 minute lap.
Lap 2, I was feeling good and started to crank it up a bit. got to Fuzzy's and dabbed which meant walking the bottom section. I got passed by guy as I was walking then caught him again when I got back on the bike. He even made a comment about getting passed by a guy on a single speed.
Lap 3, I was still feeling OK until the first little climb. I hit it pretty hard and popped. I tried to back off for a while hoping to recover, but I think the heat was really getting to me. Despite not feeling great I managed to make Fuzzy's climb again but it cost me.
Lap 4, I was now in survival mode. Thanks to Will from bike line for hooking me up with a bottle. I was hurting and didn't even attempt the first part of Fuzzy's climb, but did manage the rest.
I came across the line with a time of 1:42, which I was happy with.

Now I would like to tell you a story. Joel, who I mentioned earlier had the misfortune of breaking his chain. At some point he came across Amy Bralin who had broken her derailuer. Joel, figuring he was out of it stopped to help, but only if she promised to finish all 4 laps. He set Amy's bike up as a single speed and she continued on. At some point she got Dan's bike to finish the race on. Which she did. It wasn't her best race but she kept her promise and made sure she finished. Kudos to Joel for helping the damsel in distress, proving Chivalry is not dead.

Well I have written too much already so, Thanks for reading,
Buddy