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AFTON, MN. The third race in the Minnesota Championship Series (mountain biking) was held at Afton Alps in Afton, MN on Sunday June 18. I didn't have this race originally in my plan as Brad and I signed up for the Horrible Hilly Hundred. My sister scheduled my niece's high school graduation party on Saturday so the HHH was out for me. I decided to hop in the Afton Avalanche as a substitute. Brandi and Tory Moore, also from Winona showed up to join in the fun. We knew it was going to be tough because we didn't get a chance to pre ride the course and the race venue is at a alpine ski area. We could see yellow flagging up on the top and we knew we were going to have to climb up to the top at some point. What we didn't know was that they snaked us up and down that hill multiple times! It was a tough race; lots of up and down, not much flat to just ride fast. Of the 15 sport women that started 12 finished. There are always omens attached to events. At this one, they had me signed up for the Citizen race. It wasn't a big deal, it was easy to switch to the Sport class. At the finish I wasn't listed in the results, again it was easy enough to fix. I just had to give them my name and the computer found me. But, maybe those two incidents meant something?????? This course had a fairly long, rolling, run out before hitting the first single track section, I positioned myself behind a group of 3, some other girls had taken off and were ahead of my group. One girl pulled us up the first uphill section before pulling over. The two others took off, I thought I'd stay a bit conservative as I had no idea what was up ahead. (Some of the trail signs were "Southern Switchbacks" and "Mountain Trail") There were 3 more steep uphill sections followed by steep, rocky, rooty, tree lined downhill’s. SCARY! I was able to ride everything, but I was white knuckling it a few times!! I made it through the first lap pretty much riding solo. About half way through the second lap I spied a girl up ahead. I checked my watch and she was about 50 seconds ahead, farther down the trail she was 20 seconds ahead, by the time we came through the lap we were together. I don't think of myself as a daring downhill rider, but I did catch up a lot on the last downhill section. For the third lap I could hear her behind me for awhile, I was catching guys and getting around them in hopes that she would get stuck behind one in the single track sections. There was lots of room to pass in the uphill sections so at least that wasn't a problem. Once we hit the uphill sections I couldn't hear her anymore. The trail twisted and turned a lot so the only place to see people was in the open up hill sections. Of course those were in the sun and it was HOT! I guess I would say that I felt OK during the race, I wasn't tearing up the trail and I wasn't dogging it. It was a good, solid, effort. I ended the day in 4th place, about a minute and a half behind the 3rd place girl (who was also in my age group). The first 2 riders were probably 10 minutes ahead of me. Looking back I don't think I could have gone much faster. At least not until I get past my fears, I'm working on it........Next up: back to Wisconsin, Eau Claire on July 2. |
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This site was last updated on: August 23, 2008 03:19:16 PM -0500 |