Those trails are crazy, was positive I must of went the wrong way on the 1st lap as I was riding along nothing but rocks. Was kind of a bottleneck a the beginning with some slow traffic ahead of us on the climb since they had the running start. Someone (T-Bone) ran me over on that climb, I didn't know it was him until after the race was over. Was a fun race and definitely got some rock experience for the Arizona in a few weeks. The temp will be slightly different since it was upper forties at Landahl and triple digits in Phoenix. I was happy to finish in the top ten, battled with the 8th place guy all day, he would catch me in the rocks every lap and I would take back over on the Start or end off every lap, except the last one. JT kept on dropping his chain so I was able to pass him and barley hold him off. RF had a good race on his new ride, and RA and the Bike Masters guys should get some awards to doing the race on rigid single speeds.
MOD gets a couple cases of beer for setting up MIB bike perfect to let him dominate the race without ever even riding the bike before. We might need to have SHIM work on it before some of are local races.
We had a great time traveling 465 miles and racing 3-4 hours on fun rocky and hardpack Landahl trails! Roxz, Ryan, Doug, Tim, and I all fit inside a Dodge Grand Caravan, including the 5 bikes and gear. Found out that Doug is really anal about his English Mastiff, Rocky. Ask him about it sometime.
Doug, Tim, and I were suppose to ride together being on a couple tricked out ss Niners and a stock Haro Mary ss. Somehow Doug didn't finish the run in last place with Tim and I. Well, that was the last we saw of him till the finish.
Tim and I rode a controlled race, not feeling cramps till the third and fourth laps. Our first goal was to complete two laps for the t-shirt, then finish the third lap inside of 3 hrs so we could go out for the fourth. We made it by 2.5 minutes. Our quads were pretty cooked by the fourth lap so we pretended it was a parade lap. Doug ended up finishing his four laps about 40 minutes in front of us.
This was the first race for Ryan with his new Giant Anthem ride. He likes the stand and hammer efficiency coupled with the point and shoot style the full suspension provides. Roxz did her thing in the 3hr women, getting first and riding the fastest lap.
Though Heartland says there is over 900' climbing in the 7.5 miles, the elevation changes didn't feel any harder than anything at Swanson or Tranquility. The rock is the fun and challenging part that we don't have in our area.
I started the day picking up Doug at 05:50 and I didn't get home till 21:30. In between was a great time of fellowship, riding great trails in great weather, and food. There aren't many things that can top that kind of day.
I am not amazed by Kent's speed on the bike, what amazed me was his running ability in the Lemans Style start. That was by far the worst (stupidist)part of the race.
It was good riding with you MG, wish I could of handled those rocky sections as good as you were. Awesome job on winning the 6 hour and you would of placed 8th or 9th in the 3 hour at your 6 hour pace. It think that means your one of the fast guys.
Nice job Sydney, glad to see another fast expert woman in NE.
shim -- i'm with ya' on that crazy freaking start. it was chaos...
kev, you were riding awesome, and thank you for the kind words. i saw you more during the race than anyone else. thanks for the encouragement too -- it really helped.
and you're definitely one of the fast guys now too. you put in a solid ride yesterday. the field for the 3-hour race was STACKED with fast guys! congratulations!!
Sorry for running you over Kev but you shouldn't have been laying in the middle of the trail. Anyway, what a fun race even though my bike didn't shift worth a crap. I should have known better than to race a geared bike that never gets ridden.
Good seeing all the familiar faces from NE. Congrats to all he fast guys and gals mentioned above. Props to them for getting in the miles this year to do well so early. Hopefully, some of the KC/MO crew will come up to Platte and Ponca for paybacks.
The problem on the run was the singlefile bridge about 50 yards in. Kent new what was going to happen and ran accordingly. Getting 100+ riders in a mass start through a 10' wide taped course to the singletrack will be backed up no matter how it started. Better to be bumping elbows and standing in line running/walking/talking than a massive pelaton pileup with broken bikes and yelling.
Though you may not like the running start, those boys have a smooth registration and scoring system and they got the results online the next day! Kudos to them.
9 comments:
Those trails are crazy, was positive I must of went the wrong way on the 1st lap as I was riding along nothing but rocks. Was kind of a bottleneck a the beginning with some slow traffic ahead of us on the climb since they had the running start. Someone (T-Bone) ran me over on that climb, I didn't know it was him until after the race was over. Was a fun race and definitely got some rock experience for the Arizona in a few weeks. The temp will be slightly different since it was upper forties at Landahl and triple digits in Phoenix. I was happy to finish in the top ten, battled with the 8th place guy all day, he would catch me in the rocks every lap and I would take back over on the Start or end off every lap, except the last one. JT kept on dropping his chain so I was able to pass him and barley hold him off. RF had a good race on his new ride, and RA and the Bike Masters guys should get some awards to doing the race on rigid single speeds.
MOD gets a couple cases of beer for setting up MIB bike perfect to let him dominate the race without ever even riding the bike before.
We might need to have SHIM work on it before some of are local races.
you guys shoulda raced the 6hr... surely one of you fast guys woulda' beaten me to take the victory.
We had a great time traveling 465 miles and racing 3-4 hours on fun rocky and hardpack Landahl trails! Roxz, Ryan, Doug, Tim, and I all fit inside a Dodge Grand Caravan, including the 5 bikes and gear. Found out that Doug is really anal about his English Mastiff, Rocky. Ask him about it sometime.
Doug, Tim, and I were suppose to ride together being on a couple tricked out ss Niners and a stock Haro Mary ss. Somehow Doug didn't finish the run in last place with Tim and I. Well, that was the last we saw of him till the finish.
Tim and I rode a controlled race, not feeling cramps till the third and fourth laps. Our first goal was to complete two laps for the t-shirt, then finish the third lap inside of 3 hrs so we could go out for the fourth. We made it by 2.5 minutes. Our quads were pretty cooked by the fourth lap so we pretended it was a parade lap. Doug ended up finishing his four laps about 40 minutes in front of us.
This was the first race for Ryan with his new Giant Anthem ride. He likes the stand and hammer efficiency coupled with the point and shoot style the full suspension provides. Roxz did her thing in the 3hr women, getting first and riding the fastest lap.
Though Heartland says there is over 900' climbing in the 7.5 miles, the elevation changes didn't feel any harder than anything at Swanson or Tranquility. The rock is the fun and challenging part that we don't have in our area.
I started the day picking up Doug at 05:50 and I didn't get home till 21:30. In between was a great time of fellowship, riding great trails in great weather, and food. There aren't many things that can top that kind of day.
I am not amazed by Kent's speed on the bike, what amazed me was his running ability in the Lemans Style start. That was by far the worst (stupidist)part of the race.
It was good riding with you MG, wish I could of handled those rocky sections as good as you were.
Awesome job on winning the 6 hour and you would of placed 8th or 9th in the 3 hour at your 6 hour pace.
It think that means your one of the fast guys.
Nice job Sydney, glad to see another fast expert woman in NE.
Great job Roxy, do you ever not win?
shim -- i'm with ya' on that crazy freaking start. it was chaos...
kev, you were riding awesome, and thank you for the kind words. i saw you more during the race than anyone else. thanks for the encouragement too -- it really helped.
and you're definitely one of the fast guys now too. you put in a solid ride yesterday. the field for the 3-hour race was STACKED with fast guys! congratulations!!
Sorry for running you over Kev but you shouldn't have been laying in the middle of the trail. Anyway, what a fun race even though my bike didn't shift worth a crap. I should have known better than to race a geared bike that never gets ridden.
Good seeing all the familiar faces from NE. Congrats to all he fast guys and gals mentioned above. Props to them for getting in the miles this year to do well so early. Hopefully, some of the KC/MO crew will come up to Platte and Ponca for paybacks.
The problem on the run was the singlefile bridge about 50 yards in. Kent new what was going to happen and ran accordingly. Getting 100+ riders in a mass start through a 10' wide taped course to the singletrack will be backed up no matter how it started. Better to be bumping elbows and standing in line running/walking/talking than a massive pelaton pileup with broken bikes and yelling.
Though you may not like the running start, those boys have a smooth registration and scoring system and they got the results online the next day! Kudos to them.
Here is a link to the results:
http://www.heartlandrace.com/results/2007dirtlovinresults.htm
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