Memorial Classic

The Red Wing Memorial Classic mountain bike race was yesterday. Katie stayed back to spend some time with her sister so I headed to the race solo. After pulling into Memorial Park, I went to register and ran into Jesse Rients and his girlfriend Annie who has recently learned the art of the bottle hand up and she was quick to offer her assistance handing me water bottles between laps.

My race started at 1pm and the air was very humid with temps in the mid 80's at start time. The race actually seemed to start much slower than past races which was nice. There was a short sprint in the beginning to the single track and all the riders seemed to file into the single track pretty smoothly. Halfway through the first lap I settled into my pace and really started to enjoy the course. The course had a good mixture of single track a technical rocky down hill and uphill sections, some really fast double track, and some good climbs. Most of the course was in the trees which was nice to be out of the sun, but there was no air and it was really muggy. When we did get into the open fields the sun was beating down but there was also a nice breeze at times.

Because of the way the course laid out I had plenty of time to drink and I was finishing a full bottle every lap, so it was really nice to have Annie handing me cold water bottles every lap. The race consisted of 4, 6 miles laps. I finished in just over 2 hours and 5 minutes. Almost 1o minutes behind the leaders, but good enough for 12 place. Pretty typical for me.

The race was a lot of fun, the terrain was pretty challenging, working in the heat was a real mental challenge, and the Dos Niner was the perfect bike for the course.

Tomorrow I am heading to Lincoln, NE for a Salsa work trip. We plan to get some riding in so hopefully I will have some pictures to share when I get back.


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