Twisted Tire/Spring Cup

Posted by Dan on 24. April 2009 06:34

by MIKE SHIPP

Trey Duty, who has raced Mt. Bikes for many years, and I travelled up to Poor Farm Park in Ashland, VA on Sunday the 18th for the Twisted Tire/Spring Cup. Poor Farm is a fun single track park. Zeus, Trey’s dog, traveled with us. Zeus is one of the coolest dogs I have ever hung out with.

The race course is about a 7 mile loop, mostly single track with about three climbs. The weather was great, sunny and around 70. Trey and I raced in the Sport Vet (35-44). There were 20 racers in our race.

The race started off racing around a field much like a crit before we shot into the woods. I had to work my way up towards the front. Trey was second into the woods and I was third; we stayed that way for till about the half way point. Once we passed the leader we got a small gap on most of the other riders. Towards the end of the first lap we were caught by one and went out and back into the woods with Trey in first another rider in second and me in third.

Every thing was great for me until about the half way point into the woods. I was gapped and sitting a few blocks back of the now three leaders. I started running out of water and was getting really bad leg cramps, so by the end of the second lap I fell to 6th place. Trey was still racing super strong and sitting in first place.

On the last lap, Trey kept up his pace and put those on his wheels in difficulty. By the end of the third lap Trey crossed the line in first place. I was still sitting in 6th place till right at the line and another rider snuck up behind me and passed me as the line and 7th was my official place for the first Poor Farm race of the year. All in all, it was a great time and a lot of fun riding my new Gary Fisher Paragon from East Coast Bicycles. 29er wheels are super fast and great fun riding.