The weather in Milwaukee has been great in November. Warm, like 50's warm. But we are getting enough rain that nothing dries out. Sucks for trail biking but rocks for cx. The course for the state championship was a singlespeeders nightmare. I loved it! There was techy twists and turns, a peanut butter extended ride up, oh, and don't forget the 3/4 mile worth of wide open flats. How does one gear for that? Well, run what you brung. Thankfully I brung a White Industries Dos 17/19. So after seeing the course in fives minutes I was back on the 19.It had cooled off quite a bit as I surveyed the competition at the 30 + start. We had the largest field I had seen yet. There were 26 30+ open and I think 17 PRO, 1, 2's. No call ups today, just 2 lines of 13 wide. The hole shot was maybe 200 yards out. I took off fast and got into a good spot for the turn, when 3 guys came into me from both sides. After bumping shoulders a while I backed off. It would be stupid to crash at this point I thought.
This put me about 7th at the sand pit and into the first techy up and down turns. It quickly became clear that the few guys who shoved their way in front of me were now slowing me down as we rubbed tires in the corners and the top 3 gapped us.
At the first set of barriers I got in front of them, and held it until the downhill straightaway. Where one of them hopped in front of me again. Plus a guy from My Wife Inc. He kept going, while the other guy was happy to sit in front of me until the techy stuff. And here I have to apologize for being a jerk. I was audibly frustrated with his technical skills as it was killing me that the My Wife Inc rider was pulling away. Eventually, the guy just let me pass.
Then it gets interesting. The past two weeks I haven't felt right the day of the races. My legs and eyes have been tired. While I have been able to ride through it, my mental game has not been on, so my barrier work has STUNK. It crept up bad on the second lap of the race in the 4 barrier section.
I dropped my front wheel into the 4th barrier, losing my bike as I continued on. So, I had to go back and get my bike. Letting the guy I was racing with pull away. And it made me all discombobulated, so I turned 10ft too soon for the next turn. Forcing me to back up and start again, up hill. Ugh! That's were Patrick caught up to me.
He and I worked together for a lap and a half or so as I gained my composure. I ended up losing him in the twisty trees and ride up. That is where I sat the rest of the race. Pulling in lapped riders and 1,2's, while holding off Patrick.I came away with 6th. Saturday night I was hoping for a money spot, Sunday morning before the race I was hoping to finish. So, I'm happy with it. I am stoked for next year now that I have a better understanding of the WI off-road scene. Now it's off to the super secret single speed labs (read: my rollers and snow biking) this winter to remove my ever famous excuse of "Well, I was on a ss you see, so...."
"Eric Smash barrier"*More photos from my wife.
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