Brighton Stage Race

I had a decent result this weekend at the first ever Brighton Stage Race. It started with a TT on Torn Shirt at noon on Saturday. The tight and twisty trail made for some close times. I ran a clean run until the end of the third re-route where I hit a 1ft tall stump, stalled, and fell over. I got back on, but my chain was off and I was on an uphill. I jumped off, put the chain on, and then I was on my way. After that I felt like I was flowing pretty good throught the trail. I finished it off in 29.06 in 6th place. There was only something like a 6 second spacing between 4th place and 7th place, so it was all close.

The short track was on the open grassy area in front of Bishop Lake. I was blown away from the get-go as my starting power blows. I was pedaling hard, but the legs just seemed to not have the power in them. After about three laps, I felt better and started picking people back off again. In the end, I came in 12th place out of the 16 that raced. Not a great result, but the short track is shorter, so I didn't lose too much time. Oh, I was also one of the geniuses who rode and additional 7th lap! I was playing follow the leader. At the end of the lay, I sat in 9th overall in the stage.

Sunday morning brought the cross-country race with 5 laps of a shortened Murray Lake with some extra grass, two-track, and gravel road. Again, I think almost everyone went by me by the time we hit the single-track, but I started picking racers off. After lap 1, I rode the next three laps with Dan K. at a good pace. I was a little stronger on the hills, but he can shred the singletrack, so I sat behind him and learned how to ride. By lap 4, I was cornering much better and moving my weight around. For the three laps I rode with him, we could see Bill Clikeman back about 15 seconds, and we kept on pushing. Finally in the middle of lap 4, we didn't see him, but knew he was not too far behind. On lap 5, I took off and rode a good lap. I kept it flowing and pushed it hard. I clocked my fastest lap of the day at 27:42 on the last lap, and came in at 7th place. Maybe I could have gone a bit harder on a few earlier laps, but I was happy with my race and I got a riding lesson, so I am sure it will all pay off. That put me in 7th overall for the stage, so not a bad weekend of racing.