Iron “muddy” Hill
Sunday morning forecast calls for a beautiful sunny 80 degree day. On the road to Delaware from Pa, I have about a 2 hour ride before me. I’m all packed and ready to rip up this trail. About an hour into my drive I wonder, hey where’s the sun? And with that thought the skies open up and it pours and I mean pours. I think to myself, ah just a passing storm. As I get closer to the race venue I notice it is now just a steady rain. And it rained and rained, right up to staging. And after my last race which was in the rain and mud I was not looking forward to that again. But as Lance says “quit your bitching” so I lined up and gave it a go. At the start 2 people commented on my new ergon grips, which is one of the best upgrades to my bike yet. The horn blasts and I take off as fast as my legs can take me, which earned me the hole shot. I lead the pack into the trail and quickly find its gonna be a slick one. The course starts out with some tight twisty single track and my rear tire was sliding out on every turn. So I slowed down to gain some control and got into my rhythm. I then hear a voice behind me saying “hey its just us”. Me and Tony Hess had a strong lead on the rest of the pack. So I continued to push and we quickly started to pass the other classes before us. It was a two lap course for us and as we neared the lap I was recieving a new bottle and Tony decided to take that oppurtunity to sprint off. My legs at that second couldn’t match his speed so I decided to just get a strong pace and put my head down and see if I could make up some ground. As the course started to dry the mud became thick and clung to your derailiur which caused some shifting problems, so 2:2 it was. After a few miles in the second lap he was gone so I of course started to panic and had to pick up my pace, and in the wet conditions I hit a log crossing a little of perpindicular and I went flying. By the time my bike hit the ground though I was already up and thinking this is gonna hurt tomorrow. But with my adrenaline so high I didn’t feel a thing. So I pressed on hoping that Tony would tire or break something to slow him down a little. As I approached every rider in front of me I would ask “Tony”? if they said “no” I said “I gotta get by you” and they did generously move over, you gotta love mountain bikers. The last 2 miles of the lap was filled with hills and I started to bonk up the last climb and I thought that was it there is no catching up now, I just focused on making small circles with my feet. When I got to the top of the climb I gave whatever I had left knowing it was only about a half mile to go and I ended up a minute and a half behind Tony. Mildly disappointed I didn’t win when I had it in my sights, but stoked with my first podium finish coming in second, AKA number one loser. And I was proud to repesent Evomoon the podim and hope there are many more podium finishes in my future. I would also like to thank Tifosi, motortabs, Fluid, and Titec.
