Monday, August 25, 2008

Home Course Advantage

Made the big 30 minute drive yesterday out to one of favorite summer classics, Pontiac Lake XC. I consider it to be my home course. I've been riding there ever since I was 14 years old. I did my first XC race there. It was a Paul Bunyon in January I believe and it was extremely muddy. I DNF'd. A lot has changed since then. The course has undergone many changes and improvements. In my opinion, I think it's one of the most technically difficult courses in MI. It's 10 miles long and has about 760ft of climbing per lap. There's lots of fast challenging downhills and some tough steep climbs. I chose to ride the Trek Top Fuel and it proved to be the right choice because... I won! It's amazing how full suspension keeps ya so fresh on bumpy courses. Congrats to my good friend Joe Brzuchanski on the Bells MTB Team for sticking it to the end in 2nd place. He rode a good race.

This weekend is the Shenandoah 100 in Virginia. It's a beast of a course at 100 miles and 12,000ft of climbing! The first 25 will be fun, the last 25 will be grooling. It's good for me though. I gain a lot of experience and I learn a lot from riding with some the best riders in the country. After 100 miles you pretty much know what you're made of. You know your strengths, your weaknesses, and your limits as a cyclist. I recomomend everyone try one at least once.

3 comments:

Timothy Finkelstein said...

Congrats on the W! You own the PLRA! Good luck at Shenendoah this weekend...have fun.

Scott said...

I looked at that 100 miler. $170 for an entry! How the hell are people supposed to race mtbs?

simonster said...

Yeah, they're expensive, but they're a lot of fun.