Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Stan Crane Memorial 2009

I spent a lot of time in the 2 weeks prior to the race riding the course, mostly to dial in the Ghost Falls DH. Also because the trails are so dang fun. I actually almost went 3 weeks off the road bike. Boffeli said something like, welcome to the right way.

So first I want to thank Ed, Sue all the volunteers for their long day of smiles and good attitude. Then I want to thank Ken Murdoch, he is one of the reasons the trail system in Draper is what it is and will be what it is for years to come, He was out there at 4am checking conditions and rallying his troops to remark and man the course when it needed to be changed to protect the trails.

So Lyna and I show up to the venue at 6:45, Keating tells us 1 hour delay, I'm like, well, ok, no problem, then I send out a team email and a txt message for as many as I could. Then the course changed once and then twice and I was glad, cause we gotta protect the trails. Then the new course was all sandy soil and would hold up even if it rained again. Ed also decided to do 2 waves, which was a great thing, but meant Experts and Pro's would not go off till after 1, 5 hours after the planned start. Of well Whitney Pogue made some awesome oatmeal rasberry snacks, which helped keep me Carbed up. I got in a 2nd warm up 2 hours after the first and we started a bit after 1. 3 seven mile laps were on tap.

Ribonucleic got the hole shot with me on his wheel under the tunnel, I then went the front and got passed by Chris B and BK on the first short double track. I got to the rolling single track and let up a bit to recover from the start effort and Sam got by me, the 1 mile double track down hill seemed to take and eternity, into a head wind, Tim W got by me here, the 1 mile double track climb with a tail wind was a god send, and my best race section all 3 laps. Ribonucleic was on my wheel a bit up the first time, but I kicked in a small attack and separated myself. Tim was still close ahead but we were already catching other categories, making it difficult to close the gap n singletrack.

On lap 2 up the double track climb I was right on Tim's wheel going into the singletrack and we got separated a bit here. Finally on lap 3, on the first doubletrack section, I was passing utmtb.com Mikey and he said Go Bob!! This foiled my evil, sit on Tim's wheel unannounced plan' and I had to attack, I put in a bout a 30 second big ring effort and passed as many other categories as I could, hoping to pull back the top 3, alas, I came in 4th. Good news was that I charged on the last lap, instead of fading.

The course was fun, although I want to race the planned course. The post race BBQ was good and fellowship as always was good.

Congrats to cavey on his second win.

Everytime I was climbing, I ws thinking of Stan. I wish the Pillings coulda been there, stupid immigration laws.

4 comments:

Grizzly Adam said...

I held your wheel on the 2nd lap climb. For about 5 seconds.

I loved the dirt road traverse/descent. I could hammer through that stuff while all the climbey types were getting tossed around in the wind.

:D

Art said...

good work, I am bummed I couldn't stick around especially as this was the last ICUP i plan on doing.

drrna said...

Good job putting the wood to me on the road climb. Getting schooled in the single track is one thing, but dropped on the road is morally wrong. You're causing me to lose hope since there isn't much chance of seeing you at a crit.

Lolly Sneed said...

Thanks for the 1 hour delay heads up...and for those of us who did not know Stan...for keeping his memory alive. Great race Bob, always enjoy reading your Blog..

Brad Sneed