5-O Represent

Back from the 5-O and what a sweet trip it was. Camera didn't get much use so you'll have to settle for words. Nebraska had a huge turnout amung the 250 other folks that were riding. We may have topped the Minnesota crew this year. During the raffle Perry kept calling names of folks from Omaha I didn't know as well as folks from Ainsworth, Blair and a hostful of other Nebraska towns. Word is out, the 5-O is worth every minute of the 9 hour drive up there.

The course is nearly 50 miles of lucious singletrack. Trail conditions ranged form rocky ridge trails to damp creek bottoms and everything in between. A definite hidden gem. I'd take it over Colorado any day, tons of singletrack and elevation low enough you can breath easy.

As I said, the Nebraska crew threw down. I'm gonna need some help to fill in the blanks. Rox crushed the women's field by 25 minutes bettering her time from the previous year by something like 40 minutes. Sir Wilhelm entered the open category and rolled in a rockin' 9th on his SS rigid Serotta. Tony was followed in closely by Kev in 10th, both finished around the 4:10 mark. The two were both top 15 overall. I rolled in about a half hour later to claim 6th in the SS category, 40 something overall at 4:40. Tony's ride would have grabbed him 3rd had he raced SS.

RF, JB, Sam and Scott rolled in over the next half hour. Dale and Tim a little while after that. CVO and Cornbread had a tough day of it. Cornbread was flying early on and was with Kev close to the front, but two missed turns, a flat and a broken chain pushed him back into the 40's. CVO nearly suffered the same fate with a busted chain and flat as well. Emil and Brandon both had good rides. JW limped in with a front flat, his third of the day. Rocks were jagged and were stabbing tires left and right. Gene'O from one on one in MN suffered 5!

The day was getting late and only 2 of the 6 SS women were in. I soon saw two of the six had pulled out which meant Anne was still battling for third. Sure enough, off in the distance we all saw the yellow diamond coming up to the line. Annie swung in looking pretty good to finish it off in just over 7 hours, rocking the SS the whole way.

During the awards, Kev won the raffle for the Kona Joe chopper bike. Tons of other folks got the call up, Jackie got a sweet custom platter.

Mark your calendar now, I'm going back and you should go too. The town and campground are gorgeous, the trails are mint, and the atmosphere is the way a mountain bike event should be.

I'm proud to say we made an impact on the race. Mile 38 marked the 5th unofficial aid station atop the steepest climb of the day. As I rolled up, I was handed a can of PBR, hell yeah. I grabbed a full one, drank half and left it for Sam. I'm pretty sure the rest of the boys took part as well. Nebraska represent! (and i didn't even have to use the word epic...)