This was supposed to be a fun race!

Matt's Race

I wasn't sure what my expectations were for the race, because I have been fighting a bad cold for nearly 2 weeks and haven't been able to get a good nights rest for a while. This coupled to the fact that the Supercaliber is getting sent in to fix/replace the frame leaving me to ride the trusty hard tail for the race.

Armed with a 5 minute warm-up and a meager lunch of some watermelon and a half of a sandwich wrap I headed to the line as they were calling up the series leaders. I waited near the back of the pack along with fellow Minnesotan Troy Melhus.


Surprisingly the start was less chaotic than I expected and because I was back in the pack the speed built up relatively slowly. The dust was absolutely horrible and it was increasing difficult to see what was going on in front. Luckily everyone made it through the first turn and down the road without crashing which is good because there would have been no way to stop in time in someone went down. I was near the back of the pack and was holding a decent pace as I made the right hand turn onto the lead out section. I slowed a little because I couldn't see anything and the dust was starting to hit the lungs. As a result, I was passed by a couple of riders. The pace was fast but manageable, however, the leaders were starting to pull away.

Leading into the rocky downhill leading over the bridge there was a good pile-up and someone though it would be a good idea to let the leading women expert riders go by which held us up even more. I can't complain though, because I managed to sneak by on the outside right behind Jenna. The first lap was fairly fast and I was holding my own in the single track, but it seemed to take for ever to complete. My thoughts now turned to conserve my energy for the next three laps. As I came through the start/finish line Jordan was too close to the fence and I didn't see her in time so I told her I would get my bottle on the next lap. I was surprised how slow some riders were going on the flat sections and I used that to my advantage to gain ground.

The second lap I was making good time as I was being pushed by a couple of riders from behind. During the first part of lap three I had a good crash as my left pedal hooked a root on a sweeping left had turn. The bike with me still attached landed on top of me about 15 feet down on the side of the trail. I had flipped over landing on my back so hard that I got the wind knocked out of me. I laid there for a minute trying to get my head back on and to ensure everything was still attached. I got up, quickly checked the bike, and started back on my way, although it took a little while before I was back up to speed. The remainder of lap three went well and I still felt like I could push fairly hard.

On the last lap I could tell that I was loosing energy and my legs started to lock up on the climbs. I slowed down the pace and took as much water as I could trying to ward off cramping in my quads. I was fine as long as I didn't stand and try to hammer up the hills. There was a couple riders in front of me, but I couldn't get the legs to catch them.

I was happy with the result and how hard I pushed myself. Some things that I need to work on are getting a better warm-up routine and eating a better lunch. Also, during the race I need to make sure I am getting more nutrition and taking plenty of fluids. I finish 49th out of 59 with a finishing time of 2:20:52 with the leaders coming in just under the 2 hour mark.

Race Results

Andrea's Race

As usual I had a bad start! I was in the 3rd line at the start after they had called up nearly every WORS woman there. Anyway before I knew it there was only 3 people behind me, so I kicked it into high gear and started passing people. We were all on the straight away on the lead out sectipn and the dust was horrible, I just wanted to keep passing people and try to get in the best position possible for the start of the singletrack.

To my advantage everyone was stopped on the rocky downhill section and instead of riding it I just ran down and hopped on and flew. By this time there were quite a few people behind me and I wasn't sure how many were in front of me. I found out soon enough that I hadn't passed as many people as I should have. I closely followed several people passing as soon as I could each time. Although some riders were not very willing to let me pass right away, so I was getting farther and farther behind the leaders. I pushed it into high gear on the double track sections passing as many people as I could and kept pushing hard through the singletrack to make up as much time as I could. I held tight to some of the ladies passing a few and making sure I stayed ahead of them. Towards the end of the 2nd lap one lady in my age group came out of no where passed me and was gone, I pushed hard all the way to the end and finished 30 seconds behind her, to my dismay this ended me in 6th place (medals go to 1st - 5th) out of 8 in my age group and 20 out of 42 overall.

It was a fun race and great time camping with friends!

Jordan's Race

Every now and then we all have a bad race and today's race was just that for Jordan. The WORS races are much different than those in the MNSCS. First off the number of participants are much greater at all levels. After call-ups for each age class, which is over half the field, the remaining riders fill in leaving her near the back of the pack.

At the start she had a good position and was charging hard into the first sweeping left hand turn and she held what looked like a good pace keeping up with the riders around her. I grabbed the camera and headed back into the woods to get some good action shots. The first time I saw her was on the only real climb of the race and she was easily spinning up the hill and handling the traffic well. Just behind that section the trail goes by the opposite direction leading into the last section of single track before the start/finish so I waited for her to come through. After waiting for a while her friend Michole passed riding really strong. I had expected her to be slightly ahead of Michole and began to worry a bit. About 3 minutes behind I saw her coming down the trail and I could tell by her body posture that she was having a tough race. She pulled over to the side of the train and explained that she had dropped her chain a couple of times and was having a difficult time getting by the citizen adults. I gave her some much needed encouragement and told her to use her middle ring and stay in the larger cogs in the rear. I also told her to not worry about it and have fun.

As I walked back passed the bridge section I stopped to watch Michole clean the section with ease and continue on her way. I waited for Jordan to come through and she had lost even more time and was nearly 5 minutes behind her at that point. Again, I told her to have fun and push hard to the finish, but I could tell that her drive to push hard was gone.

I was proud that she completed the race and she pushed hard to the finish. The true test will be how well she does at Mt. Kato next weekend.