MNMBS end of the year awards party

With another season of mountain bike racing under my belt it was time for the annual MNMBS awards party. I had a pretty good year, I finished 2nd overall in cat 2, 50+. It was a very muddy season and racing on my single speed Vassago all season definitely was a huge contribution to my sucsess. Thanks Vassago!

Cross racing on Jabberwockys

With mountain biking season over, Zach and I decided to do a little cross racing on our mountain bikes.
We had a fun time passing guys on real cross bikes after starting at the back. Zach finished about two places ahead of me and finished at about the middle of the pack.

MNMBS #9 Great Hawk Chase

Yes it was another muddy race in Duluth, but this one had some dry spots as well.
Zach and I had a great time at this race because the course was about 95% single track and located in a beautiful area.
Zach had one of his best races of the year, finishing 17th overall out of 125.
I also had a good race, we both ended up in 2nd place in our age classes.
I am looking forward to race here again!

MNMBS/WORS #8 Bontrager Border Battle

The border battle is our biggest race of the series. This year there were nearly 700 racers and almost 250 in our race. This was also the hottest race that I ever remember doing. I decided to hold back a little at the start because of the heat.
That tactic payed off on the last lap as started catching the guys who got ahead of me at the start. The heat was starting to take it's toll on all the racers, I was in a good spot to over take the guy who was running in 2nd when I clipped a tree with my bar and found myself laying in the middle of the trail looking at the sky. I quickly remounted and still finished in 3rd.
Zach also had a good and finished a close 4th place, beating me by almost two minutes.
We were totally cooked after the race, we just sat here for awhile and took turns pouring water over our heads.

MNMBS #5 Wheelhouse Classic

Finally, this was the first race of the season that it didn't start out muddy. The start was long lead out through a mostly flat field. A tough start for us single speeders. But once we hit the single track things started looking up, and I mean up! This course has some of the toughest climbs of the entire series. I moved my way up throughout the race and at the end I caught the leader of my wave and was able to hold him off at the sprint at the finish.
It was my 2nd win of the season and my closest finish. Zach was not so lucky on this day, hit a rock on lap 2 and tore his rear tire and was not able to finish.

MNMBS #4 more mud

Here I am before the mud.



Race #4 of the of the season was at Mt. Kato ski resort in Mankato. As usual this season it rained a lot the night before to make for some very muddy condtions. Zach did not join me for this race as he was away at wrestling camp.

Overall it was a good day, I ended up getting 2nd in my class. I think the guy who got 3rd was still in line to wash his bike.

MNMBS #3 Dirt Spanker Classic

Our third race of the season was the muddiest thing I have ever been in. If you read my post from our first race of the season you my recall that I proclaimed it my muddiest ever. Well this race was in a whole different league. I would guess that I was off the bike pushing for about half of the race. One of the best things I did before the race was to put long toe spikes on my shoes. If I had not been on a single speed it would have been even more pushing. At one point, I was passing another racer while pushing my bike and he said " do you know your back wheel isn't turning?" I didn't. Yea, it was that bad.
The good news is I like racing in the mud and things went very well for us. Out of the the 100 racers that lined up for the start, Zach finished 20th overall and I finished a couple of places back at 23th. We both took 1st place in our respective age brackets.

My first time on the top spot of the podium this season, thanks to the mud.

Dana took these great pictures of us during the race. Very cool!
You can checkout her work here Dana Schoppe Photography

MNMBS #2 Afton Avalanche

Race number two found us at Afton Alps ski resort. This was Zach's first race of the season.
He started in a large field and worked way up to a third place finish in his age group. Not to bad since he had shoulder surgery 2 months ago.
I had tough race and battled back and forth with two other guys in my class and ended up fifth after a get off on a steep down hill section.
Glad that one's over, Afton is always one of my toughest races of the year.

MNMBS #1 Mud fest!

I kicked off the 2010 race season this last Saturday at the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series race #1. We showed up early to beat the lines at registration. The sun was out, it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. About 30 minutes be for the start They announced a storm was coming and the race would be delayed. We went back to the car and waited for an hour and a half while it poured rain and lightning lit up the sky. We finally started two hours late and it was going to be muddy! Racing is about the only time I get to ride in the mud and I like it.

There was a short section of asphalt before the fun started. I think I passed as many people on the ground as I did riding. It was by far the muddiest race I have ever been in, I had a blast!

I didn't crash and finished 29th overall out of 160 racers. I took 2nd place in my age class and only missed first by nine seconds.

Unfortunately Zach still needed a little more recovery time from his shoulder surgery in April and decided to wait until the next race to start his season.

Spring break fun in Arkansas

Last weekend Zach and I loaded up the van and left the snowy coldness of Wisconsin for some riding in Arkansas.

We had great weather and the riding was very scenic and technical.

The terrain was different than what we are used to at home, but it was welcome change.
Most of the time we ride single speeds. But for this trip I fitted both of our Vassago's with gears, and it was a good thing we did. As you can see from this picture, we had to do a little climbing to get to that spot.

We got in three days of riding. It felt really good to blow off some winter dust on some really cool trails.

Cyclocross awards time

Zach received this nice etched glass award from the Minnesota Cycling Federation. He got 2nd place in the Cyclocross Rider of the Year competition. It was a very respectable finish to the season considering he only participated in 7 of the 12 race series. Good job Zach!