Pfffffftttt.... Blowout at the Crowder Fest

Links to race photos from the Heartland Race Website:

• "The Look" -- Race winner Cam Kirkpatrick is all business, right up to the end.
• El Chico Supremo -- Roxanne Abbott laying waste to the Women's field. Nice race Rox!
• T-Bone on the last lap of his reign over the Crowder singlespeed class. Great race buddy.
  
• CVO on the first lap - nice shot!
  
• CVO (background) on the first lap - shot slightly before the shot above
• CVO on lap 2 - in the trees and lookin' more than a bit like erik zabel.
  
• CVO on lap-3 with me on this wheel
• Me about 1.5 seconds later than the shot above
• Another one of me - slightly before the shot above
  

CVO and I traveled down to the Crowder Fest near Trenton, MO. this past Saturday for the third race of the Heartland Race Series, and the rocky, fast Crowder singletrack was dry, pimped to the nines and ultra fun.

Unfortunately I chose to install a Kenda Karma (the small one) on the rear of my El Mariachi after hearing how dry and fast the course was on their Website. Well, that choice combined with my decision to run 35psi in a tire that should take about 40psi (running tubeless) in the rocks, made for disaster before the race even started. I nailed a rock about a mile from the finish of our warm-up lap and felt the familiar stream of liquid latex spraying onto my leg. I ended up putting a nice tire-ruining gash in the sidewall right at the top of the rim bead.

My homebrew sealant tried admirably to seal off the escaping air, and it'd actually hold about 18psi for a while. So I used my CO2 cartridges to limp back to the car, where I proceeded to cuss a lot under my breath while I embarked on the slimy job of booting my tire and fixing my flat.

As Cam flew by and disappeared into the trees on his third lap, I was now ready to ride. So I rolled into the trees and found a log to sit on until CVO came by, at which point I jumped onto his wheel. And that's where I sat for the next lap and a half - the final laps of his race.

And I've gotta' tell you -- CVO was rollin' strong. His descending was on time and he was climbing like a man possessed. Other than Aaron Grady (who was coming back from a flat), CVO was only passing people. It was cool to see how strong he still was after two hard hours of racing.

In the end, CVO earned a hard-fought sixth place, just 17 seconds off the podium. And during the drive home, those seventeen seconds came up several times... and each time he mentioned it, I reminded him how many people he passed during the race just to get to that position. And in the end, that's racin' -- you end up where you end up.

For me, it was still a good day. I still got to ride, and got the prime seat to experience the last half of CVO's race. We had a great time. It was just expensive, and from a racing standpoint, I was left feeling extra-motivated for the race this coming weekend at Ponca. Hopefully I'll be able to put my gremlins of the past week behind me and ride like I know I can. However I end up finishing will be cool -- I just wanna' race!

It was a beautiful ride into work this morning, and it'll be a nice night to roll over to Jazz in June with Laura. So yeah, I'll miss the MWC ride this week, but I know you'll all have fun without me.

Hope your week is going great.

Cheers,
MG