I had to take a forced break the past few weeks. Lotsa work and lotsa travel. I was in July for the Tour de France, and that is always a black hole of time. The month just sort of slips away, while you are in the grips of the time capsule of the TDF.
But, before the month got really going, I did do a couple of races at the end of June/begining of July that were pretty good.
Hixton – D16 race
CMJ has been holding races forever. It has a storied past, not always great. Over the years, there have been so many races there that it has trails just crisscrossing all over. There have been years where the course was not marked well and the lines were really hard to find. But this time it was superbly marked and it was the best Hixton race we have ever had.
As it has been all summer, the week leading up to the race was filled with moisture, but it left the dirt just perfect. Again, the best we have ever had there. The course was soft, so it ended up rutted and full of holes by the end. Perfect, just the way I like it.
On my line there were about 15 bikes, a really good field. I took the holeshot, but gave up the lead to Paul somewhere during the 1st lap. In the 2nd lap, I passed him back and did not see him again. I ended up having just a spectacular race. I have had a few of those this year.
Tearing through a section at Hixton. Sometimes I look like all right.
This is a video from someone in the last row. He gets a horrible start, tears through the group, then crashes and cannot get his bike started, then tears through the group again. Kinda humorous. Gives you an idea of the course though.
Stone Lake – D16 race
This has never been my favorite course, and also because it is normally a shared race with D23 Minnesota. This one was no different. Bone dry, dusty, lotsa huge rocks (It is called Stone Lake after all), combined with D23… But, the field was huge. 20+ riders on my line.
The race is a really long lap. It includes a fun outdoor style MX track, some rocky stuff in the woods and a bunch of field sections. The lap was really long, probably 20 minutes.
I got a decent start, maybe 5th at the 1st turn. But, I moved to 2nd by the time we entered the woods. I followed the leader for the 1st lap, at a super comfortable pace. On the 2nd lap, I squeezed by on the inside of a turn in a field and put my head down to push for a bit. After a half a lap, I had put quite a gap and was able to ride my own race from there.
My suspension completely was absolute magic for the 1st part of the race, and then went away completely by the end of the race. Ouch. It was hard to ride by the end and I was getting ping ponged all over the course towards the end. I found myself on my head a bunch on the last lap.
In the end, I had a great race and notched another win. I probably cannot win the overall in either the WIXC or the D16 series, as there are just too many races I will miss. But, it is fun to race for wins this year and not worry about the overall. So far I have notched 6 or 7 wins – more than I have in any other year.
Here is a video someone posted from a row or so ahead of me. Shows the course really well.
I was going fast at Stone Lake, but sometimes I look like such a dweeb.
I spent the day today in the garage. Got my bike ready to go for next weekend, cleaned, polished, got all the bikes working well, sorted gear, washed air filters etc… I know you have to do these days, but geez I want to race now. Thank god there is a WIXC race next weekend.
Summer break is dumb.
Joe
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