So much mountain biking...so little time

The last 3 Mondays we have done short track mountain bike racing. I do believe we are addicted!

Both this week and last week, unlike the first week we planned better and arrived about 1 hour early. This works out really well as we beat the traffic and had lots of time to preview the courses.

For Week 2, Trisha picked up her ClifBar door prizes she won from the previous week, the she went with Ronda and did a beginner skills tutorial. I went out with Alex, Cole and Leah on the main course. Both Cole and Leah had spectacular wipe-outs on some of the more technical downhills but I was bursting with pride as they picked themselves up and kept on ridin'. It was great how many of the riders called out encouragement to the kids. Cole did almost 2 complete loops.

The course for week2 was less technical but with longer loops. With our endurance from running we could really pick people off on the longer straight stretches....that is until we started having mechanicals :-(
Trisha's grip shift lost its grip :-) and my pannier frame "popped" a support beam the second time I slammed into a pot hole on the back side of the course. The loose support beam got in the way of my pedaling and eventually blew off. This left the metal cage sitting back on my rear tire and rubbed off my tail light. Slowed me down a bit for the last 1/4 loop :-)

I had hoped to place in the top 15 but I only made 19th. Still up from 22nd last week. Trisha was 16th, Ronda was 6th! Full results are here.

Then more riding out last Friday at the west Wilson River trail.
Ronda had planned for us to cover both the West and East sections of the trail but when we discovered our prowess (or lack thereof) of handling hills and switchbacks, we ended up only covering the west section. Over 2 hours of fun (faster to run it!) with enough crashes to prove we were learning :-)

We finished out the riding with week 3 of short track last Monday. I did the preview of the course with the kids and am happy to report no crashes this week. Trisha, Ronda and Kris raced (15th, 4th and 6th respectively) while I elected to sit out fearing injury with my race only 5 days away. I did duty as photographer while the chicks torn up the course!