Gods Country MTB Race

Sat was the (delayed due to rain) season opener of the UFD West MTB racing series the radar was showing some showers in Lawrence, surely the weather would not play spoiler again! The Marathoner and CAT3 racers were on the course at 9am so I quickly buzzed a few peeps and they all said it's go and the trails were soaking up the rain like a sponge. Loaded the FLEX with the kids and bikes and rolled west.

Gods Country MTB Race is a great local event on trails that are fun for just about anyone. First timers to those that like their trails with a touch of blazing hot sauce all seem to enjoy rolling or ripping the trails. Not to mention Locke does a great job putting together an event for everyone and even with a little rain to dampen attendance there was a good turnout.

We arrived to the trails at 10:30ish and were greeted to many familiar faces and smiles all around. I love hitting the big regional and national events because you can't match that atmosphere and energy. Local events like this one have familiar faces, many friends and I really enjoy seeing all the peeps getting their race on with racing highs and lows. Highs like J-Dot who was just coming off his race when we pulled up, super fired up from coming back from an early crash to take the lead only to lose it at the end to a surprise sprint at the line, doubt that will happen twice! Then the lows like a fallen teammate... Kevin went down during the brief rain showers which created some really slick spots and broke his ankle, hang in there Kev and fast healing bud. Helped Kev get comfortable and took his gear to his car then after talking to a few more peeps I had 45 minutes to race start and I was standing around in my street clothes, time to get to work.

Kitted up and out for a quick spin on the levy with a few hard efforts to get warmed up for what was going to be a fast start. Aaron and Travis were in my race and Tom was in the 40+ group behind so there were going to be some blazing fast laps. Two weeks ago the trails were the best I had ever seen and I turned out the fastest laps there I have ever done with back to back 33's, today would prove to be faster, the dirt was nearing Velcro like conditions after the showers.

Lined up at the front and Aaron led us out on the levy with Travis and I in tow. Soon as we hit the single track Aaron crushed it like these were his home town town trails or something, oh wait, they are. He was ripping the first section of trails apart and slowly pulled away from Travis and I. Soon after I commented to Travis that he was not riding as smooth as I normally see him to which he replied he burped some air out of the rear tire trying to corner with Aaron. We rode the first lap together at a pretty solid pace but not blistering given the low tire pressure. Came into the first lap and Aaron has put a little over a minute into us and Travis pulled off to blast a little C02 in the rear tire. I soft pedaled a little bit until he was back on my wheel then we hit the gas hard going out for lap 2.

Lap 2 ended up being the fastest on the day and according to Strava was the fastest lap on record at LRT with a 29.51, yeah you read that right the 30 minute mark has been broken!!! We closed the gap on Aaron and kept the pace hot on lap 3 putting down a 30.02 and railed our way back to within 27 seconds of Aaron in the end. Kudos to Aaron for sticking it that first lap and holding the Ethos train off for the W. I took 2nd with Travis 3rd on the day. With those crazy fast 2nd and 3rd laps makes me wonder how the race would have played out if Trav did not have that burp early on. It was pretty killer railing the entire race with Trav which we did a few times towards the end of the cross season as well. We seem to be pretty evenly matched right now and that does not bode well for the other racers given we will keep pushing each other to see which one of us (or both of us) can take a top 5 at MTB Nats this year. I don't think either one of us could have dropped each other during the race and if we had held onto Aaron that first lap, who knows what the order would have been on the podium! Tom ended up taking 4th overall on the day and is officially part of the "29er's rock" club. Speaking of that K-Rocket absolutely shredded the course on her new ride, she took the win in the CAT1 Women and placed 9th overall in the CAT1 MEN while setting the fastest lap by a female at LRT (33.34) to boot, smoking fast lap!

Karen and I own the KOM & QOM @ LRT (for now), check it on Strava and see where you rank.

Next up is Bone Bender and K-Rocket and I are teaming up again as a COED Duo to defend our title in the 6hour race and while we are at it try and take a top 5 overall in the Men's Duo class.

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