-Spirit Mt: From My Perspective-

Finally, after spending a week in Hayward, Wi, with little to worry about other than bike riding and relaxing, I finally had a race that I was happy with. The new Fuel frame worked flawlessly, flowing through the singletrack like a fish through water. I felt in control the entire race.



Going into the last lap, I was comfortable riding with a group that included Fisher, Paul Hanson, Scotty KJ and JR. I really wanted to poke my nose into the singletrack first before the long downhill section. The 4 others were riding the singletrack pretty smooth, but I think I could have opened things up a bit if I had a chance at the front. Jay, Paul and Fisher punched it pretty hard going up the climb below and I was able to hang on, but not get up front. In the process, we dropped Scotty a little bit. After about 5 minutes in the singletrack, he was back on again.



The train continued on to the bottom of the mountain, which is where the real racing began. Jay was starting to twist the throttle a bit up front and everyone seemed to be hanging with the quicker pace. Coming out of the ravine, down by the waterfall, I dropped my chain and had to let Scotty by. I pulled over, got it back on and stepped on it. I did not want to let everyone go without a fight. It took me about a minute, but I was able to get by Scotty and latch back on to the train of Fisher, Paul and Jay. Chris turned around and gave me the thumbs up for catching back on, but I couldn't respond as I was starting to enter the "red zone." I finally settled into the pace that Jay was laying down. Somewhere on one of the rocky sections of the long singletrack climb, Fisher crashed and I think actually went OTB. I was able to get around. I followed right behind Jay and Paul until the climb opened up onto the grassy meadow near the top of the climb that was basically a false flat. Fisher had been hammering to catch back and caught all of us on that section. I let him go by me, as I had a large mushroom cloud starting to form right above my head. I had officially EXPLODED right at the top of the climb. Bummer!! I would have loved to sprint for 4th with those guys. Close but no cigar.



Apparently the sprint finish ended with 2 of the 3 guys crashing into the tape at the finish line. The time recorder at the finish line was distracted with all of the comotion, and didn't even see me come in!! According to my watch, I finished in 2:11:12, 24 seconds behind the sprint finish. I never bothered to check the result after the race, and it never was fixed. Scotty had to inform the race director that I had beat him and handed over his prize money. Thanks for that Scott! The MNSCS guys just assumed that my time was 2 seconds in front of Scott, so they gave me a 2:13. Oh well. I wonder why we didn't use the magnetic ankle chips at this race????