It was a good day for Lincoln Charities. I showed up at this race not expecting much, as it was the first race back after a couple of months down time from a broken wrist (from a crash at this very facility back in October). It was cold out, but conditions were surprisingly good considering the rain that had moved through the area in the days leading up to the race. The small MX track, which had been a greasy mud pit just a day before, was in great shape thanks to some 4-wheelers who had spent the afternoon turning laps in order to speed the drying out process.
Anyway, long story short…there were maybe 10-12 racers on the 40+ class. I got a decent start and was third into the woods. Unfortunately I was under the impression that I had left with the wrong class so spent the first minute or so just kind of riding along while trying to decide whether to go back to the line. I figured though since this is just a ‘for fun’ race I’d continue on and see how it went (good thing, too because it turned out I did start with the right class after all).
So, into the woods with two in front of me…cleared on after a couple of minutes. That left Tim Loen directly in front of me and putting up one hell of a fight. I was right on him but he was picking good lines, closing the door whenever I spotted and tried to take advantage of an opening, and generally riding really well. My opportunity came about ten minutes in when he went down on a slick root. I passed him for the lead and never looked back. An hour and a half later, I got the win with Loen taking 2nd a couple of minutes behind me. It was a good day 🙂
Here’s some video of the first ten minutes or so:
-b