2016 WORS Mt Morris

SS Gearing 34x18

21st Overall (pro/cat1), 2nd age group

I took the family with this week.  We got signed in and I showed Evan the kids course, he didn't stop riding all day. I had to stop him because his race was about to start. He had a great time. 

My race went really well too. I was concerned about gearing because there were some really tough climbs, but there was also a long section of fast open woods.  It ended up being the perfect compromise. I was suffering pretty bad on the climbs and still able to keep up in the open stuff.

Mt. Morris had some really technical and rocky descents, by the end of the race I was really beat up. I am writing this a week later, and my abs are still in bad shape. The low cadence long climbs really tore me up, then the fast rocky descents hammered it home.

The nice thing about running single speed is that no matter how bad you hurt, you can't shift down and go easy. So I just kept digging and ended up improving on last weeks result.

Top 20 isn't too far away now, the next round is in Eau Claire, WI. I have not decided if I will be making the drive up there yet.

2016 WORS Cam rock

SS gearing 34x18

23rd overall (Pro/Cat1), 3rd in age group

It had been quite some time since I had raced a Wors race, and I had some doubts if I belonged with the Cat 1's. I placed really well in Cat2 a couple years ago and decided to move up, and hadn't raced wors since. 

So it was nice to get out and run a good race, and get a solid mid pack result. It wasn't an amazing result, but it showed me I was in the correct group.  I have some room to improve, the goal is top 20 by the end of the year.

The race starts off with about 60 riders at the bottom of a big hill, everyone pushes hard to try and get into the woods. I have been bitten by this setup in the past, when you push way to hard and get out front then end up blowing up half way through the first lap. So I pushed hard but didn't kill myself.

I was happy with how things were going on the first lap, I wasn't getting dropped on the open sections and I was killing it in the single track. The SS rigid El mariachi is such a solid platform in the tight stuff. The 26lb single speed definitely has its disadvantages, but the woods is not that place.

On the second lap, I passed a geared bike and he was complaining when I spun out on the next open section. So I hit the nitrous button and pushed really hard, by the end of the second lap I was hurting pretty bad and had to take the 3rd lap pretty conservatively. On the 4th lap it came back and I was able to push again. I passed 6 guys on the last lap, and rolled into the finish chute. 

I was pretty pumped with how the day went.