This past weekend marked the official end of the racing season. I decided not to race the past two weekends and instead chose to commute more and go out and do some more casual mountain bike rides with my friends. In the past 4 weeks I have commuted 600 miles and rode 3 out four weekends on the dirt. It has been awesome and a nice relaxing end to a long season.
For those keeping track this year was my first year I really put an effort into racing. I started my season in April at the Sea Otter classic, entering my first Expert mountain bike and finishing 18 out of 24 in my age class. Coming home from the weekend on the west coast I decided to enter my first road race finishing 9 out of 43 in the cat 5's. I improved at my second and last road race finishing 4th in the 5's. Road racing was fun but I still have a lot to learn and look forward to a few more races next year.
Erik's Spring Cup in May was the start of the local mountain bike races and I finished a respectable 12th out of 43. I entered one more MNSCS race in Rochester and stayed consistent with my results posting 11 place out of 24 riders in the expert class.
My next race, the lumberjack 100, was the longest mountain bike race I had done to date, I finished the 100 mile race in just under 10 hours. From the lumberjack I continued to logging some longer races including my first 12 hour solo race. I was fortunate to win the single speed class for the second year in a row at Ore to Shore, a 48 mile race in Mi. I participated in the Dakota 50 for the 3rd year in a row and fell short again of wining the "big mug". At the 50 my luck had officially ran out and I took a big spill during my last mountain bike race of the year at the Chequamegon 40, but still managed a respectable time.
After Chequamegon, I took a much needed break in LV and CA mixing some work with some pleasure, then came back to MN to finish up my racing season with 2 cross races. It has been almost 8 months this week from the Sea Otter classic and 13 or so total races. I learned a lot about racing this season, I entered more races than I ever have in any past season, and in my opinion accomplished some pretty great things. So, with all that said, I think I owe it to myself to skip out on the last races of the year and enjoy some good ol mountain biking with some friends.
So from here on out it, is cold weather commuting until next spring and next season.
Enjoy the winter everyone.
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