Last Saturday we headed up to Duluth for MNSCS round three. We were not planning on doing this race. After Zach did not finish his first race and then missing the second race due to a dirt bike crash, we decided to add this race at the the last minute. We arrived Saturday afternoon and pre-rode the course. It's a good thing we did, because we changed our gearing so we could make the big climb at the start. We camped out Saturday night and met some very cool people. Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny and cool. The race course was very challenging, It started at the base of a ski hill and went straight up to the top, what a killer! At the top, we entered a very tight, twisty, rooty, single track that was non-stop for five miles. It dumped us out near the bottom of the climb ,so that we could do it again. Zach started in a wave ahead of me and had a very good race after spending two weeks off the bike. If you look close at the picture above you can see he still can't wrap his pinky finger on his right hand around the grip yet. It didn't seem to slow him down much though. Zach finished first in his age class and 17th overall.
I, also had a good day of racing as single track is my kind of course. I finished second in my age class. It was nice to be back on the podium again. These great pictures were taken by Dana Schoppe
Sunday's race was another large field,179 in my race. This is a view from up the ski hill of the start of my race. I got a poor start and got stuck in a huge bottle neck at the beginning of the single track, while the leaders rode away. After I got though that mess, I started making my way through traffic. Afton is probably the the hardest race of the MNSCS series, and it definitely has the most DNF's. I ended up 4th in my age class again. It was a good race for me.
Zach, on the other hand, got to watch from the sidelines. Saturday nigh,t I had to take him to the ER to get 5 stitches in his leg and get his hand X- rayed to find out he had a broken finger. He was riding his friend's dirt bike and one of his other friends t-boned him with a four wheeler. He should be good to go in a few weeks. Our team mate Ben Shocky was also at Afton mixing it up with the rest of the expert racers.
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