Wednesday, October 29, 2008

HOT Circles

Posted by Dave Holmes at 9:18 AM

The Haw Ridge race turned out to once again be a fun day on the bike.  Even though it rained all day friday, the course was only mildly wet and slick.  I decided to race the singlespeed to start it off.  To know why, you only need to look up above at the title of my blog. You know, riding in circles is just way too exciting, and I didn't want to be distracted by the clickies.  Maybe.  

I started off allright on the 1/4 mile of flat pavement, and was probably 10th or so heading into the woods.  Had to make a few passes halfway through, but for the most part it was smooth sailing and traffic free.  There wasn't a single puddle on the trail, and I finished the first lap with only a few splotches of mud.  The singlespeed was great for a few laps, but the steep climbs up red hill and the hill of truth were killing my knees.  The HOT is just the right grade and length where walking it would cost you minutes of time every lap, but it's steep enough that you are mashing horribly and wrecking your arms trying to get up it.

After 6 laps, I decided that singlespeeding was for amateurs, and hopped on the superfly.  It was silky smooth, and it felt nice to be able to spin again on climbs and actually make it all the way over the HOT.  I cut a lap close on forgoing the lights, and got to descend the last section in near darkness.  After that it was lights, warmers, and vest time, as the temperature dropped swiftly.

I was pretty much locked into third place all day, which is pretty much what I was expecting based on my riding lately.  After 13 laps, I did some math and was able to call it a day a lap up on 4th.  After some free_ing cold times changing clothes afterwards, I was able to relax and hang out by the fire for a while.  Good friends and good beer couldn't really equal anything other than good times...  

Congrats to fellow 29er crew member Erik Nielson for winning the solo and Mike Biegalksi for a strong 2nd.  

Since I didn't get to see Rachel fall in the water, I guess I'll have to settle for this.  (For those that don't know, this trail is called Rachel's Landing...  You can probably guess why.)


"Has anybody fallen in the... SPLASH"

 

1 Comment:

  1. Rachel said...
    October 29, 2008 at 11:02 AM  
    Thanks for the sort-of shout out...I pussied out and walked my landing every single time...6. Those drunk guys wanted so badly to catch me falling in the water, hence the reason I walked it. It was getting sketchy at the bottom towards the end of the day! And, I can see why poor ole' Randy ate it going up the hill...that one section was SLICK...not muddy, just pack so hard that I had a really hard time walking up it!

    I agree with the steep hills..I think I could have done a few more laps if my feet didn't hurt so badly from pushing up RED and the HOT. My knees didn't complain as much as the feet. Smap even brought me different shoes, but they didn't work due to oldness.

    Great job Dave! You RULE!
    Rach

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