MNSCS #9 Laddies Loppet - Calaway, MN

This was the second to last race of the season and our second year going up to Maplelag Resort as an end of the season getaway. We have all been looking forward to this trip all year, since it is a great way to relax and spend some time with all the people we raced with all season.

We decided to head up to Callaway, MN on Friday night so we would be able to watch the Time Trial Race on Saturday morning. The 4.5 hour drive was uneventful, which we like. Once we arrived at Maplelag it began to sprinkle, so we quickly set-up our tent and the rest of our campsite. We put the kids in the tent and Matt and I slept in the van on the air mattress. We put the kids to bed quickly, although they were quite wound up from the trip and it took them a little while to get to sleep. It then preceeded to rain the rest of the night. Except for Jordan's Pillow and PJs everthing, amazingly, stayed dry in the tent.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to a wonderful homecooked breakfast. The Maplelag staff fed us exceptionally well all weekend. Then we headed out to watch the Time Trial and the kids went and found all the other kids and played. It rained on and off all Saturday, but we were able to get our prerides in and felt comfortable for the next days race. Matt took Jordan and Taylor out for their preride, Taylor was a little scared and apprehensive to try much of the trail; so that of course made Jordan upset and made for an extremely long preride. Maybe Taylor will be ready to ride kids comp next year. After preriding we decided some tire changes were in order, since the trail was quite muddy and slick in some places.

Sunday we woke up to an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was shining it was a cool 60-70 some degrees and best of all the trail had dried up considerablely. I took a nice long warm-up ride and felt ready to go. Jordan hopped on her bike and tooled around also. Then at 9:30 we were off.















Just over 30 minutes later Jordan crossed the finish line 1st overall in the Kids Comp looking fresh and unwinded. Then 51 minutes after the start I crossed the finish line landing 1st in my age group out of 7, 4th out 18 for the women and 26 out of 48 overall.












Meanwhile, Matt was warming up for his race. At 11 am he went off with a terrific start. A short time later we watched him through the lake side drops. Although my camera was not cooperating, there are some other really great photos that were taken, if you visit the following sites:

Link

pictures DSC 0925, DSC 0926, DSC 0927



http://new.photos.yahoo.com/slapshotmtb/album/
Go through the list of albums down to Maplelag Dirt Jumping and look at IMG1594 and IMG1589
http://www.skinnyski.com/
The go down the page and click on LaddiesLoppet XC Coverage
The under the photoset for citizen look at pictures 12, 39, 62, 96, & 134
and under the photoset for sport pictures 5, 25, & 27
There are not too many pictures of Matt because much of the race he was the first racer and passed through the sections before the camera person was there.

After taking a few of my own pictures I figured I had a while until he finished so I grabbed a quick shower with that thought that I would be back in time for Matt to finish. I walked up to the finish line and there was Matt cooling down, he had been back for some 15 minutes. He finished 1st overall with the next rider over 41 seconds behind.

So as you can tell we all biked terrific races.

The rest of the weekend we relaxed and socialized. We throughly enjoyed our stay at Maplelag and we are already looking forward to next year.

Jay and his family put on a terrific race and have a fabulous resort. Thanks Jay for the great weekend.