Area 47

A new race. A new course. An update. I skipped my updates for ore 2 shore and cheq 40 so here goes.

After hearing reports of the course I was sceptical. It didn't sound like fun. A new course cut in means bumpy with a side of bumps. This wasn't what I was looking foreword to. I wanted fast, fun, and flowy. The kind of course that seems all downhill with high speed turns... I need to get back on track I was daydreaming. Anyway, with the story of a cow culvert to ride through under a highway had me thinking standing lines waiting to go thru a one way pass. I needed the race for my 6 or 7 and having not raced WORS in a while had me jonesing for competition my own caliber instead of getting beat by 400 people in a long point to point.

Got to the race with time to spare and did what all good racers do, register the morning of the race and hit the gooooooo button without having seen the course. In actuality the course was pretty cool. Different, but cool. It had its uniqueness that all of our Midwest courses have. What we lack in mountains we make up with a different type of course week in week out to keep us all interested and on our toes.

The first lap had me following slow wheels since I had no idea what was ahead. After one lap I felt confident that I was at least riding the singletrack faster than those around me, so I did what I had to do. I sucked wheels on all the open stuff (there was plenty of field edge to do that) and sprinted to all the trail openings. I usually got a decent gap, held it, opened it in the woods, and did it again to the next riders when the trail opened. After a very mediocre first lap I slowly picked off the riders in my vicinity. The fast guys were all long gone but it was fun to race the guys I could see and actually be racing till the very end.

After a long hiatus from WORS and my limited riding I still managed to find my usual spot.

7th in age and 35th overall.

I was happy with that. I never felt like I was suffering too much and was able to ride hard by my standards instead of the "put it in survival mode and finish" I have been accustomed too.

In my head it was a good race for me even though it seems like an average result, so all in all it was good day.

Seriously, we rode thru this!