They start the race in waves separated by two minutes. The clydes went off just after the sport riders. One guy on an orange Salsa dos 'Niner took off like a bat out of hell. On the short flat section leading up to the opening hill, I was doing 20mph and he was pulling away from me. I said to my self, "either he's going to completely kick my ass today, or he's gone out way too hard."
On the first climb I could feel the rest of the pack dropping back a little and I began to eat away at Mr. Orange's lead. The climb flattens a bit about 2/3 of the way up and I was able to really kick it up a notch there. I caught him and sat on his wheel for about 100 yards or so. Just before the course turns to go into the "singletrack" I passed him and really kicked it over.
There is very little actual single track on this course because the trail is mostly machine-built, as a result, it is a very fast course. I was able to get in the big ring and cruise a lot of the hilltops and the roadbeds.
I made the first river crossing in good form, and started the climb up "Still Hill" (named because there is an actual Moonshine still - or rather the ruins of one- about 200 yards off the course) Here I caught the tail end of the women's sport class. Ther were pushing their bikes up the hill. I managed to ride the whole thing.
I rode alone in a sort of no-man's land for quite a while on the first lap of the course. Since I knew I was leading the Clydes, I just concentrated on keeping it smooth and not making any mental mistakes. I have had some really bad crashes on this course before, and I did not want one today.
Shortly before the second river crossing, I caught sight of another sport class rider ( a kid wearing blue and yellow gym shorts) Having a rider to hound-dog chase is very motivational for me, so I took off tryiong to catch him. I actually managed to pass him in the cornfield just before the river crossing.
ON the second lap, I caught sight of a couple of other sport-class dudes who seemed to be riding together. I had to chase hard to bridge the gap. While we were on the top of the hill and descending to the first river crossing on the second lap, the gap stayed fairly consistent.
On the fireroad section leading down to the river, I did almost catch one of the 4-wheelers the marshalls were using to sweep the course, but he pulled over to the side of the road before I could make my catch. Oh well.
On the second river crossing and up Still hill, I got into a fairly large crowd of folks, sport class riders and the tail-end of the novice class. I got squeezed off the good line up the hill by a guy pushing his bike and had to run about 100 yards until I could get a smooth enough spot to finish the climb.
After that' I could occasionally hear riders behind me the whole rest of the race, I could hear them talking,and brakes squealing, etc. Knowing that people were close-ish behind me really did make me go faster.
I went back and forth with a sport-class guy in a red jersey on the last hill. We pased each other at least three times. Finally, on the last descent, I just told him to take it on home, I had a podium no matter what. I still kept him within "striking distance" as a matter of pride. On the final descent we both got passed (like we were sitting still) by the overall winner from the expert class. It was a good day.


Not a damn thing!

Gasped for breath and ate Barbeque.