4 wins in a weekend!
Labor day weekend provided lots of mountain bike racing options in Virginia this
year:
Chris Scott and the rest of my Harrisonburg mates put on an incredible race at
the Shenendoah 100 (yes, that's a 100 mile mountain bike race). This is truly
one of my favorite events of the year, and came at a perfect time to test my endurance
legs before the 24 Hour Solo World Championships (less than 3 weeks away). My
legs passed the test, and I managed to get away from Jerimiah Bishop on the longest
climb of the day (20+ miles) and won by 4 minutes. Jerimiah led for much of the
race whilst I chased, first after fixing a snapped chain, then after replacing
a pinched tube. Thankfully, a seven and a half hour race provides plenty of time
to chase back! The popularity of the event is shown by the 250 participants (the
field limit), most of whom camp out at the venue before and after the race to
stretch the experience as long as possible, and share war stories, which ever
single finisher inevitably has.
Not wanting to miss out on any of the quality racing in the Mid-Atlantic region,
I also took on the Captech MTB Stage Race, promoted by Dan Comber. The format
was a 2 mile time trial on Friday evening, then XC races on Saturday, Sunday,
and Monday, each at a different MTB venue around Richmond. Since the overall placings
were decided by points won each day, I could skip Sunday to go race the Shenendoah
100, and hope to overcome this by earning enough points on the other days. I maximized
my chances by winning on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, and it turned out to be
just enough to win the overall. A tremendous weekend for both results and training.
Next up is MTB racing at Ringwood this Sunday with my Trek/VW teammates and Poz,
the master mechanic/team manager. Then it's onto the 3rd Michaux Series race of
the season, the Terror of Teaberry, on September 16th, before heading out to California
for 24 Hour Solo Worlds.
Stay tuned for more reports...
Chris.
