Welp, it's over. A summer full of turning myself inside-out on the bike, downing copious amounts of energy gels & drink mixes and piling a ton of miles on my car has come to an end.
The season finale for the Sierra Cup Series was held at Northstar this past weekend. Fun course. Poor bike choice on my part. Hardtails at Northstar don't really make a ton of sense. I knew this but felt like the 4,000+ ft of climbing would suit the hardtail better and I could just "deal" with the descents and try to not loose any time. Yea. That only kind of worked. The climbs were more manageable on the hardtail, but the descents (especially towards the bottom the the mountain) were really taxing. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a "shoulda, coulda, woulda" story in an attempt at telling you I could've won had I ridden my Blur... but I would've had a metric ass load more fun on the descents on Sunday.
In the end, I lost the battle (Sunday's race... I finished 2nd) but won the war (Sierra Cup Series) in a close battle with Clint Claasen all season long. I haven't seen the points yet, but I'm guessing the championship was down to single digits.
So, now it's time to start working on the "bucket list" of trails that I really want to ride this year. This includes stuff I haven't done in years, trails that are super fun but I haven't got a chance to ride yet this year and some others that may require some travel.... yep.... road trip.
If I were to keep racing this season, it would surely include some cyclocross and wouldn't feel complete unless I checked out this race at least once. Damn... that looks fun. Maybe...????
The season finale for the Sierra Cup Series was held at Northstar this past weekend. Fun course. Poor bike choice on my part. Hardtails at Northstar don't really make a ton of sense. I knew this but felt like the 4,000+ ft of climbing would suit the hardtail better and I could just "deal" with the descents and try to not loose any time. Yea. That only kind of worked. The climbs were more manageable on the hardtail, but the descents (especially towards the bottom the the mountain) were really taxing. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a "shoulda, coulda, woulda" story in an attempt at telling you I could've won had I ridden my Blur... but I would've had a metric ass load more fun on the descents on Sunday.
In the end, I lost the battle (Sunday's race... I finished 2nd) but won the war (Sierra Cup Series) in a close battle with Clint Claasen all season long. I haven't seen the points yet, but I'm guessing the championship was down to single digits.
So, now it's time to start working on the "bucket list" of trails that I really want to ride this year. This includes stuff I haven't done in years, trails that are super fun but I haven't got a chance to ride yet this year and some others that may require some travel.... yep.... road trip.
If I were to keep racing this season, it would surely include some cyclocross and wouldn't feel complete unless I checked out this race at least once. Damn... that looks fun. Maybe...????
