MNSCS #6 Powder Monkey Duluth, MN

Another beautiful weekend!

We, along with the Hendricks and Kevin and Kristie, all traveled up to Duluth on Friday and camped for the weekend.

On Friday we quickly set-up camp and then went for a pre-ride. I was going to ride the kids comp trail with Taylor and then go back for a loop on my trail. We started the preride with

Jordan doing a quick break because Scot made a quick turn and then she went OTB (over the bars) and then Kevin who following her went OTB and landed slightly on her. I freaked to say the least and screamed for Matt to come back, I got up to Jordan and she couldn't breath for a second and then she just screamed. I layed her on her back and she just was holding her side and she was saying she hurt and couldn't breath. Then she kept saying mom and she started looking pale. I screamed for Matt again and he, Ray and Micole came running through the woods to where we were. When Matt got there he strated asking her questions and then she started looking better. She was fine she had a sore rib and her hip hurt from landing on it, she had also got the wind knocked out of her pretty good. She rode for a while and then Matt took er back becasue she was hurting a little bit. I totally overreacted, but I was scared I say her fly throught he air and it looked worse then it ended up being.

We rode a bunch of the trail but all ended up off the right trails and on the wrongs trails since the course was not marked. It was a bit frustrating because they did not want us preriding on Sat due to weddings so we went up early to abide by their wishes and only ended up frustrated and confused.

After our preride we all got ready really fast and headed into Duluth for an awesome dinner at Hell's Kitchen they have incredible food and their portions are insane.

The next day we slept in and hung out at the camp ground for awhile then we headed to Duluth to walk around down by the Lake. It was a beautiful day. We got some snacks down near the pier and just enjoyed.

Race Day!

We got up early as usual (but not too early since we were right across the street from the race). We had breakfast and then headed over to the race. This was our first day wearing our new LCR team colors.

Taylor and Devon sat this one out, it was a little too hilly and too technical for them.

Jordan did great! She thought she only had one lap but had 2 and just took it all in stride. She said her hip hurt a little but for the most part didn't bother her. She stayed strong through the entire race and finished 2nd out of 6 for all the ladies and 28 out of 45 overall for the citizen riders. She is consistant!

I felt like quiting the entire race, but I held on. My warm-up went great I started out feeling bad but the legs warmed up nicely and I felt ready to go. I rested for a few minutes between the race and my warm up and then I was ready. They had a mass start which at first I really didn't think I would like, but then as the race started I realized it was going to be much easier this way. There were so many people I didn't need to pass and I could just get into position right from the start. Part way up the intial climb Matt told me there was only one lady in front of me, well I knew there was one lady right in front of me, so I passed her and just kept passing as many people as I could. I got towards the top of the hill and spotted another lady, Brandi Moore, so I worked hard and passed her too. We all reached the top of the hill and had to wait to get into the single track. We all filed in and the first 20 minutes of the race were quite frustrating because we were all riding so close in a line. We slowly passed those who made mistakes or couldn't ride smooth. Then we slowly spread out and we were all able to ride our own race. I had a 3 lap race. After lap 1 Brandy was right on my back wheel going up the hill and then I kicked it a little and put some space between us, she stayed fairly close to me until we hit the road half way into the 2nd lap, at that point I put it in a high gear and took off. I didn't see her again. I didn't feel good at all most of the race, it was really hot and I was just not feeling right. I thought I might DNF and then I figured before I did that I could just slow down, but I was never able to bring myself to do it. Finally after the 1st climb of the 3rd lap I started feeling better and I knew I was in the home stretch, I just needed to ride smooth and avoid bike failure and crashing. I held on for the overall women's win! I finished 1st out of 6 for the ladies and 39 out of 82 overall for the Sport riders.

I'll let Matt tell you about his race!