Laurel Mt. Classic

Headed down to Northern, PA this morning for a little xc action. Having last weeks SM100 in my legs and a tough week of training, I knew the race was going to hurt.

This little guy gave me one of these so I could flog myself up the climbs

Race started out on a nice long 4 mile fire-road climb. Having never ridden the course, we were told it was about 3 miles. I paced and readied for 3 miles. Group quickly split into about 10 of us, shortly I was in the front group 4 of us and the chasers scattered. But soon, I popped off as it continually went up. The legs weren't comfy nor was the taste of blood in my mouth. I was picked up by a few stragglers and slogged the last 3/4 mile up the climb and into the singletrack about 7th. Picked off a rider right away and set to work on chasing down another.

Headed into a straight down descent, just a chute literally, I was cooking and came up so fast on the rider, I put the brakes on but started sliding into him, had to lay it down. He for some reason looked back, then laid it down also. I managed to get up and drop him on the descent and out into the fire road climb.

Some fire road action and a long, straight fast descent had me increasing the gap. At the bottom was a slow grind against the grain in a techy creek side trail. Criss-crossing the trail and slowly heading uphill. I realized my saddle bag was open and had to stop, took a few secs to get the zipper to close fully and ended up losing a spot. Attempted to chase said rider in front of me, then we headed out to an open grass climb. 2-3 miles of uphill, wet tall grass. I was hating life and hating my legs for not wanting to put out a decent effort and give it a go. Ended up getting passed on the climb by a single speeder and was being chased down by 2 other riders.

I had only 1 bottle and saw an aid station, was super happy to refill and grab a few cups to slam. I had to let the 2 riders slip by, but gave chase. Dropped the 1st shortly, and the 2nd rider hung on. Pushing it in the singletrack and he kept sticking, attacked on the powerline downhill and got a gap, but he shortly closed it. I had to let him go by as my saddlebag was open again. I reached around and put everything in my pockets. (I'm done with saddle bags!)

I closed the gap back on the road, and into the gravel road, I was sitting about 20 yards back. I made a huge surge and caught him off-guard and dived into the singletrack. It was all slightly down and I was flying and floating. Caught and dropped the singlespeeder, and had about 5-10 secs on the rider chasing. Continually surging on the flat fast singletrack to try to increase my gap, it was holding steady. Shortly after though, it pointed down, straight down. I slammed it into gear and just let her rip. All out downhill high speed, flying and floating. Checked over the shoulder, no rider in sight, gotta push incase I flat. Check the computer, I'm close a few k away. Keep pushing, killing it and flying. Hit the dirt road and sprint the last 200 meters to the line. Rider shows up about a minute or 2 later. He was on a dualie, I was on the superfly. He said he never chased on the top because he thought he could catch me on the way down. No chance, nada gonna happen on a downhill at speed.

Ended up 7th overall/6th age group. 1 spot out of the money.