The season t’is upon us.

I am not talking about the stupid Christmas season either, because that would mean we have skipped right past the summer into winter again. I am not anti winter, but I am definitely pro summer. After all, summer is where the not snow time of the year happens. I am talking about racing season. It is truly the most glorious time of the year. (If Santa was wise, he would move to the beach where he could ride MTB and motorcycles, and then deliver in the summer.) When the flag goes up, the next couple of hours is truly the best time that can be had. The mad dash to the first turn, the chase through the woods, the high speed sections, the flow through the grass GP fields etc… Yep, it is pretty much the best.

We are now a few races into the new season. A few races in a new class for me. I am learning a lot. Things go faster for sure, but I am also learning that I cannot go slow on the last lap. 2 A class races in, and I have been super fast in the middle of the race, but not as fast as at the end. That was how I needed to race in the old guy class, the race was pretty much set at the end of the race and even though I was not doing it on purpose – I was slowing down at the end. I have lost a place or even 2 places on the last lap – being a tourist at the end. The kids in the A class go hard all the way to the flag.

Adams County

Mid race, putting the pace on.

This is the race that is on Bob Kau’s property. Bob is a crotchety koot, that we all love. Rough on the outside, but soft inside. He owns a fabulous piece of property with a bunch of fun woods sandy woods, and a vast area of former cranberry bogs that are now just football field size areas filled with 6 inches of beach sand.

We started this year in one of the sand bogs and had to drag race all the way down the sand area, to the turn out of the bog and into the woods. My little 250F is easy for me to ride, but I admit is not the fasted bike on the line. Combine that with button only start and a long sandy stretch and that equals entering the woods very near the back of the 22 rider A class line. I had my work cut out for me.

In the first 30 minutes of the race, the pace was super high and I thought – uh oh, did I make a big mistake this year? In the middle hour of the race I was riding hard and catching people every lap. I found myself all the way up to 4th place at one point. But, in the last 30 mins I kinda crumbled apart and 2 people that I had passed earlier got back by me. I ended up 6th. Not bad for my first A class race, but I still had a ways to go forward.

It was dry.

WIXC race at Sugar Camp

Sugar Camp has always been one of the best races around. I am having fun this year, and only planning to race the best courses in the area. That means I will jump between series and even just sit out a weekend if the courses are at the bottom of those lists. I will not spend a lot of time explaining why I do not like a course or why I feel a course is at the bottom. But, the courses at the top of the list are all exceptional.

Longer laps, different kinds of terrain, tight with open and fast, good flow feel, not with a death mud hole included, no place that will become bottle necked or clogged with dead bikes, good dirt, and a good field of riders. Sugar Camp is in the running for being the best. It can be really sandy in the middle of the summer, but unless it is raining during the race it will have good dirt.

In the WIXC series, the A and AA class usually start on the same line. But this time we enough riders that we could separate them. That is good for me, as I do not need to be on the line with the AA riders. (I barely belong on the A line.)

I got a much better start at this race and rode in the top 5 for most of the race. But, as is now my MO I am afraid, I ended up falling back to 5th on the last lap. 5th is not bad, I just would really like to be under 5th if I could.

This was my last race on the old bike. I will need to clean it all up, and make it ready to sell. If you are interested, give me a call.

New 2015 KTM 250XCF

I am definitely a creature of habit. I like this bike so much, that I may not ever ride anything different. I would love to have the simple maintenance of a 2stroke, but I do not want to give up the sewing machine like power of the 250F.