Chuck-T's Fontucky Race Report

Young Gun Chuck "Tabasco" Libolt on his Tomac Primer

Hey Chris,
I would have had this to you a bit sooner, but I'm stuck on the night shift at work this week and Ive been extra lazy. Anyway, the race last weekend was awesome. The whole crew showed up for the weekend. Trevor, Randy, and Darter all kicked ass in their respective races. The weather was ominous the entire time, but fortunately it held off and made for some of the best course conditions I have seen in a while. Temperatures hovered in the 60's for most of the weekend, with just enough scattered showers to keep the dirt extra tacky and fast! It never really rained enough to make mud or nasty Vermont NMBS style conditions. This weekend I hit my goal of breaking into the top 20 riders, and rode into 15th out of just under 40 pro riders. It was definitely a stacked class again this race, with guys like E.C., Houseman, and a few other former Junior worlds team members. My time improved over the last race, but I know I can go a bit faster. I had a clean run without any mistakes. It's only the 2nd winter series race of 2009, so still plenty of time to prep for the bigger races like Sea Otter, or whatever USA Cycling decides it is going to host in place of Nationals this year. Oh, and props again to Darter for showing his class who the real boss is. He still had just over a 4 second lead over 3rd even with an "off course excursion" in his race run! Not to mention Randy who killed it in his downhill race after doing 3 laps of XC the day before with DH practice after his XC race! Damn! And again, I want to extend my thanks to the Rush clan for bringing out the unofficial Backbone race-mobile again. Having them there makes the race weekend a lot easier! I attached a photo my mom found online. I just got my new gear for the season, so thanks to Bobby and Jay at 661/Royal for getting me the new gear right before the race.