I took Friday afternoon off work thinking that I would leave Shreveport before 3PM to make the 4.5 hour drive up Hwy 71 to Ft. Smith, AR. 
But, there was an issue with a custom home I am building for a client that needed my attenting a lot longer than I expected. By the time I got back home, loaded my truck with gear and bike and got on the road it was close to 5:30 PM. This put us at MizN8's mom & dad's house in Ft. Smith at about 10:15 PM.
In my haste to get out of town, I'd forgotten to look up the starting time of the race and with no internet access to find out, I set my alarm for 6:30 AM.
The next morning MizN8 and I got up and drove down to Spring Hill Park. The park is located next to the Arkansas River. It is as hilly there as the river trail in Shreveport is! This makes it the flatest trail in all the AR Series.
I got registered and found out the race started at 10 AM so we decided to go eat breakfast. Western omlet and coffee for me.
At about 10 AM the race started. I signed up for the Clydesdale Class for beginner MTB'ers 200 lbs+ mainly because a friend of mine from Fayetteville, AR wanted me to race against him and his Titus Titanium ExoGrid 29er Racer-X. The Clyde class had an extra trophy for the rider who gathered the most Little Debbie snack cakes along the trail and returned them (uneaten) at the finishline. We had 8 in the class.
At the gun, I started at the tail end of all the Beginners... dead f'ing last!
I decided to hang in the back and size up the riders and I have never ridden the course before so I thought I'd see how it went. My Titus Ti buddy hit the single track in the #1 spot and I was seven riders behind him. My 29er was riding well. Within the first 1/4 mile I picked off the rider in front of me and riders 2-6 were in a pack with me at the end. They were going a little too slow for my taste, so I saw a short open area about mile #2 and passed them all at the same time!!! Now I was in the #2 spot! Whaaaawhooo! :dancing:
I was running about 10 sec behind Mr Titus Ti who was in first. We hit some really twisty single track in the woods that reminded me of riding back home at Lake Bistineau so it was nothing I wasn't used to. My Specialized Fast Trak tires hooked up well and were cornering great! There were 4 Little Debbie stops on the trail and I stopped at the first 2 until I decided that the guy behind me in #3 wasn't stopping and was getting too damn close for me to make anymore Lil Debbie stops! :mumble:
So I dropped the hammer in the big ring (stayed there the whole race) and started to recover the time I'd spent picking up Little Debbies. I even passed a couple of Beginners who had started before my class so it was cool to yell out, "I'm not in your class and I need to pass you!" :hot:
I caught up to Mr. Titus Ti and rode with him until he made a stop for more snacks. I slowed down to get around him and the #3 dude passed us both on his baby-wheeled Gary Fisher Cake... dammit! :angry:
I told Mr. Titus Ti I was going to chase him down since the Cake rider was on baby wheels! He said go for it and I started hauling major ass! I quickly caught up to the guy. Then I hung on his wheel and started chatting with him, mainly to freak him out... heeh heehh... I was telling him that my 29er was handeling the trail so well that I was just on cruise control.. Yadda, yadda, yadda.... :devil:
Mr. BabyWheels was starting to get tired and I noticed he was spending a lot of time braking for corners then he had to spend a lot of energy to accelerate to get back up to speed where my big wheels were simply gliding around the corners without breaking cadence. Looking back on it, I should have just passed him and kept my pace up, but hind-sight is 20/20. Eventually Mr. Titus Ti caught up to us and told Mr. Baby Wheels let us pass which he did without protest. I was in the #1 slot for about a mile until I was passed my Mr. Titus Ti with about 1.5 miles left. I was wishing I had pre-ridden the course so I would know if I could expend all my energy and still make the finishline. I had about 30 sec on Mr. BabyWheels and was about 15 sec behind Mr. Titus Ti and figured that I would try to catch him this is one of his home trails.
Well, I came off a small downhill section and around a corner and there were three sections of trail flags and I took the wrong damn trail! :looney:
It was the last uphill section before the finish and I had to dismount to get back on the right trail and Mr. BabyWheels blew by me... AGGRRAAH! :nonono:
Well, I got back on the bike and cranked it to the finish about 30 sec behind him for a 3rd place podium finish!!!!
After the race, Mr. BabyWheels was checking out my Asylum and Mr. Titus's ExoGrid 29ers and told us that while riding behind us he was noticing how smooth we could corner and how fast we were on the open flowing sections and he said he thought we were going slower than we were because of our pedal cadence. He took our bikes for a test ride and I think we will have yet another rider converted. Ya know... once you drink the 29er Kool-Aid, its too late!!!
I got a cool trophy, a race pint beer class, a tee shirt and other swag.
All in all a great day of riding and fellowship with mtb'ers. The Arkansas riders are so laid back compaired to the Tx Series racers. This was really apparent by the number of people who were just riding around the park (warming up/rec riding/not racing) without helmets and not a single f'ing helmet Nazi bitched at them. :nuts:
I will be back for more races this year!!!
Photo of me on podium with brew!
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=86158&d=1145300419
But, there was an issue with a custom home I am building for a client that needed my attenting a lot longer than I expected. By the time I got back home, loaded my truck with gear and bike and got on the road it was close to 5:30 PM. This put us at MizN8's mom & dad's house in Ft. Smith at about 10:15 PM.
In my haste to get out of town, I'd forgotten to look up the starting time of the race and with no internet access to find out, I set my alarm for 6:30 AM.
The next morning MizN8 and I got up and drove down to Spring Hill Park. The park is located next to the Arkansas River. It is as hilly there as the river trail in Shreveport is! This makes it the flatest trail in all the AR Series.
I got registered and found out the race started at 10 AM so we decided to go eat breakfast. Western omlet and coffee for me.
At about 10 AM the race started. I signed up for the Clydesdale Class for beginner MTB'ers 200 lbs+ mainly because a friend of mine from Fayetteville, AR wanted me to race against him and his Titus Titanium ExoGrid 29er Racer-X. The Clyde class had an extra trophy for the rider who gathered the most Little Debbie snack cakes along the trail and returned them (uneaten) at the finishline. We had 8 in the class.
At the gun, I started at the tail end of all the Beginners... dead f'ing last!
I decided to hang in the back and size up the riders and I have never ridden the course before so I thought I'd see how it went. My Titus Ti buddy hit the single track in the #1 spot and I was seven riders behind him. My 29er was riding well. Within the first 1/4 mile I picked off the rider in front of me and riders 2-6 were in a pack with me at the end. They were going a little too slow for my taste, so I saw a short open area about mile #2 and passed them all at the same time!!! Now I was in the #2 spot! Whaaaawhooo! :dancing:
I was running about 10 sec behind Mr Titus Ti who was in first. We hit some really twisty single track in the woods that reminded me of riding back home at Lake Bistineau so it was nothing I wasn't used to. My Specialized Fast Trak tires hooked up well and were cornering great! There were 4 Little Debbie stops on the trail and I stopped at the first 2 until I decided that the guy behind me in #3 wasn't stopping and was getting too damn close for me to make anymore Lil Debbie stops! :mumble:
So I dropped the hammer in the big ring (stayed there the whole race) and started to recover the time I'd spent picking up Little Debbies. I even passed a couple of Beginners who had started before my class so it was cool to yell out, "I'm not in your class and I need to pass you!" :hot:
I caught up to Mr. Titus Ti and rode with him until he made a stop for more snacks. I slowed down to get around him and the #3 dude passed us both on his baby-wheeled Gary Fisher Cake... dammit! :angry:
I told Mr. Titus Ti I was going to chase him down since the Cake rider was on baby wheels! He said go for it and I started hauling major ass! I quickly caught up to the guy. Then I hung on his wheel and started chatting with him, mainly to freak him out... heeh heehh... I was telling him that my 29er was handeling the trail so well that I was just on cruise control.. Yadda, yadda, yadda.... :devil:
Mr. BabyWheels was starting to get tired and I noticed he was spending a lot of time braking for corners then he had to spend a lot of energy to accelerate to get back up to speed where my big wheels were simply gliding around the corners without breaking cadence. Looking back on it, I should have just passed him and kept my pace up, but hind-sight is 20/20. Eventually Mr. Titus Ti caught up to us and told Mr. Baby Wheels let us pass which he did without protest. I was in the #1 slot for about a mile until I was passed my Mr. Titus Ti with about 1.5 miles left. I was wishing I had pre-ridden the course so I would know if I could expend all my energy and still make the finishline. I had about 30 sec on Mr. BabyWheels and was about 15 sec behind Mr. Titus Ti and figured that I would try to catch him this is one of his home trails.
Well, I came off a small downhill section and around a corner and there were three sections of trail flags and I took the wrong damn trail! :looney:
It was the last uphill section before the finish and I had to dismount to get back on the right trail and Mr. BabyWheels blew by me... AGGRRAAH! :nonono:
Well, I got back on the bike and cranked it to the finish about 30 sec behind him for a 3rd place podium finish!!!!
After the race, Mr. BabyWheels was checking out my Asylum and Mr. Titus's ExoGrid 29ers and told us that while riding behind us he was noticing how smooth we could corner and how fast we were on the open flowing sections and he said he thought we were going slower than we were because of our pedal cadence. He took our bikes for a test ride and I think we will have yet another rider converted. Ya know... once you drink the 29er Kool-Aid, its too late!!!
I got a cool trophy, a race pint beer class, a tee shirt and other swag.
All in all a great day of riding and fellowship with mtb'ers. The Arkansas riders are so laid back compaired to the Tx Series racers. This was really apparent by the number of people who were just riding around the park (warming up/rec riding/not racing) without helmets and not a single f'ing helmet Nazi bitched at them. :nuts:
I will be back for more races this year!!!
Photo of me on podium with brew!
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=86158&d=1145300419
