Reforestation Ramble 11th :(

Felt good on start, had lead into first single, cooled it to let someone else lead on wide open flats, where I am not too comfortable. Jesse gunned it and felt like he had rocket fuel in the legs for the next lap and a half. Guess he did since he pulled off the Win. Popped on second lap, I think mixture of last week being off sick (in lungs still) with a flat course which is not my best kind of course. Another week or two to build it back up and I should be good to go.

I popped real bad and soon saw Tristan, Melcher, Maceji, and Ted Hanes coming on and sat up to gel and hopefully recover. It was hard to hold on for a bit, but I just kept fueling and spinning it out while hanging on. Toward the end Lap Traffic got bad, like every 10 seconds calling out our presence and just praying they might move over, otherwise we comletely stop....
Tristan ended up clipping a sport rider who went endo while pulling over, I just barely missed Tristan's bike while he literally went flying a good 10 feet off the trail into the woods. I felt really bad for him since it seemed like he did a lot of the work in this quasi mtb/road race.

I closed the gap created and felt really good the last half lap and was sure I could win a group sprint. Really I should have attacked a bit earlier to try and break it up prior to a sprint because as soon as I started my sprint it came to a sudden halt due to poor course setup in my honest opinion, our whole group found the finish/lap sign right in the middle of the entrance to the finish shoot and brakes were slammed all around and that was it, the order we started the sprint in was where we ended up, Melcher, Hanes, Maceji, Me. I thought about punching it again to sneak by but lap traffic was in front and the lead into the finish was barely wide enough for two bikes???(really what is that about?) Pretty frustrating finish to go from leaders to eleventh, especially when points are valuable this time of year. Although racing here is usually not the best in results for me I was glad to ride with friends and the single track was amazing. Sorry to my fellow racers for the complaints at the line (really what do I have to complain about we are so blessed to e able to race and enjoy our competitions). I was just frustrated with the finish and my performance, it was not directed at you, not your fault at all. I did mention some suggestions for wider finish shoots for races where large groups come in to the line together.

We are in Marquette now half-way to Eagle Harbor and prbably the largest stack of intense training I have ever done to be topped off with the Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival. Really wish I could get some pics up, but Olympus Customer Service is REALLY bad and we have been without our camera for a few weeks...

Long post, thanks for reading if ya made it this far.