Fat Forty dirt race.

Made it through another! I can just sum it up as fast! There were several small attacks from several riders that kept the pace high and the number of riders who had a legitimate shot at winning this year made for a fun time on a bicycle. For myself I had a mental breakdown for 15 seconds at firetower, when a pack of riders caught the lead group, that allowed a group of 5 get a way from me. I did the best I could up the berkie section to bring them back in but it is hard to get anytime back when the game is on. I did bring back Ryan, Bjorn, and then when we crested the top I saw Mikey so I set up and let someone else take responsibility for the pace so that I did not chase down my teammate. At that time Dewey Dickey took over and pulled us down the road and was just motoring. We ended up entering the last 2 miles with 9 people in the group and the top 3 up the road about 30 seconds. I for some reason thought that we were racing for 10 th and not 4th so I just picked riders off as it made sense and then outsprinted Mike Olheiser for 7th.

Here is a good shot of Mikey and I coming up to take over control of the lead group. (skinnyski.com photo) Mikey ended up finishing 12th overall after giving a good go to stay with the lead group up over the birkie climbs and then had the dreaded shutdown with something like 6 miles to go, TJ showed good poise and did not let an off day get in his head and stayed with the chase group that came up to the leaders at firetower and ended up coming in for 13th overall on the day. Darrin's first Chequamegon did not go as plan as someone decided to come up from the non preferred start area and take out 3 of his spokes on the road section. It was awesome to see him get a new wheel though and still finish the course with a grin from ear to ear. He ended up cruising in and feeling like superman passing people all day. Scott had an good result and rolled in for 42nd overall and 4th in his age group.

Michelle also raced for the 3rd week in a row and ended up 7th overall and won her age group in the Short and Fat. Overall it was a good weekend!!

Sweet hardware!

Not sure if I should let this secret out of the bag, but Copper Harbor has some of the coolest trophies of any race that I have ever been a part of!! In my opinion the wheel even tops the mining cart at leadville!! Either way our group cleaned house and enjoyed the weekend.

Good Team Weekend....

Need to give a shout out to TJ for winning the MNSCS stage race at Maplelag this past weekend. When i talked to him last night he said it was a hard fought win for him after needing to chase back onto the leaders to take the XC win. He also started the weekend with a 2nd in the opening TT and STXC. Nice work!!

Also here is a good shot of Darrin and I negotiating Pauls Plunge this weekend. It was awesome, we entered with 7 people from the 1 lap race in front of us and came out the other side with one still standing, a young kid, maybe 12 years old on a 24 inch bike! Sweet!!!!

First time tie for me.....

Just seemed fitting. We were both there to have fun and did not make sense to either of us to continue driving each other into the ground!! I think Darrin and I were both thankful for the game off about half way through the second lap since we were blaming each other for the fast pace. They said we had 7 minutes after the first lap so we put it into cruise control and just enjoyed the ride. For those who have never been to Copper Harbor to ride the trails, they are just awesome!! Our course for the day had 4000 ft of climbing and it made for some fast and technical descents. In the end we decided to take the 26 inch wheel made out of birds eye maple, and laced to a shimano hub using copper spokes and hang it in 212 to let everyone see what we do. Will make for a good conversation piece and will hopefully get people interested. Here is the newspaper article: Mining Gazette

For the rest of the team, Michelle took 2nd in the one lap race by less than 60 seconds. Also Di took another win in the long race, with Todd (T.S.P.) taking 3rd and Scott fell to 7th after riding in 5th most of the day until flatting at the bottom of Paul's Plunge.