Lake Hope XC Race With Tookie and Co.

Finally managed to get to a race with Tookie yesterday, and it was super-fun! It was located at Lake Hope in Ohio, about half way between Jeff's place and mine. The course was stellar, and loaded with singletrack. I arrived VERY early to set up the 10x20 KENDA ez-up, and prepare for the day. Jeff and his ENTIRE family showed up to help and hang out, and I felt at home in my element again.






The race was not until 1pm, so since I had time, I offered Neutral rider support for a few hours. ALL my riders that got fixed finished well yesterday, despite the constant torrent of rain that flowed through the course. It made for a greasy race unlike any I have ever seen, and was very exciting! As the rain began to pour, people without KENDA tires or Backbone jerseys tried to poach my tent. They were all forced to leave. Why should I have to look at Maxxis tires in my tent?





The tires, by the way, were sweet. Jeff has been running his Small Block 8's BACKWARDS to add mud-traction to his 29er, and has loved that set up. I ran my 1.8 DRED TRED in the rear at 50psi, and my 1.9 Nevegal (just in case) up front at about 34psi. That proved to work great, never losing traction on the short and disgusting grinds in the slop. I waited until Jeff's Sport group went off, then poached the course behind them. It was a much different style of course than out West. No rocks, nohing technical, but very "crit-like" with multipple short, steep leg burning inclines all over the place. Almost nowhere to pass on the 17 mile course, you really needed to be on it to go around someone in this loamy forest.






Jeff's family were great, trudging through the woods and helping me heckle Jeff the entire day. They sat like royalty under the ONLY TEAM CANOPY in the area. Not even the TREK regional team had any cover. Free bikes, but no e-z up in Ohio? Who's handling THAT program? Anyhow, our Xpedo pedals never packed up, and with all the small kinks worked out, we never had a pedal related issue all day. I am still on my ti-spindled pedals, and I exceed the weight limit by 40lbs!








Jeff finished in about 10th place out of thirty or so riders, and with nowhere to really pass, everyone finished about where they started when they hit the trail portion of the race. The event was cheap, and BLUE WOLF please take note...these races were 27 dollars, included LUNCH AND A T-SHIRT!!!! It can be done....I promise.

Oh, and did I mention the race went off on time, and there were no "course-marking" inconsistencies???





Anyhow, it was really nice to hang out with Jeff and the family yesterday. There is another race this weekend, but I have to go to Missouri to pick up some stuff! Hope the Rim Nordic Race went well back in Cali, see ya'll soon..