Fall!

Last week the trails were so clean, but three cold days with a constant drizzle brought down what seems like at least half of the leaves. Believe it or not, there is a trail in the picture above, just right of center. Even though I know the trail well it was not easy to follow. Lucy got on just fine though.

Surprisingly my tires are still gripping well, but I'm sure that'll change with more leaves. The weather was quite nice though.

On another note, among the mountain bike community of Oxford, this year will be remembered as the Armadillo Outbreak of '15. In 11 miles, I think I saw at least 8. I'm a little afraid for Lucy as they're probably the one animal she can catch. Fortunately the leaves crunching under my tires seemed to drown out the noise of their movement; she didn't chase a single one today.

MORCS Finale

The final race of the Mississippi Off-Road Cycling Series was a blast! Three other members of the Ole Miss Cycling team and I crammed in my little Tacoma and headed to Ridgeland for the weekend. It was one of the few times I've ever needed a double cab, but we made it work.

We arrived in Ridgeland Friday night and decided to take a tour of Jackson in one of the guy's parent's Geo Tracker, with the top down of course. We were cruising around when we stumbled upon Jacktoberfest - a music festival with lots of beer vendors. What was really amazing about it was the crowd. It was a stylish, urban crowd mostly between ages 25 - 35, and no one was sloppy drunk. (I should note that the night was young, and the beer was expensive.) It didn't feel like Mississippi. I liked it.

Saturday, we pre-rode the course, watched the Super D, and a couple of us participated in the Cross Country Eliminator, XCE, which was a short race of four participants where the top two advanced to the next round. Cat 2 put on a good competition, but Cat 1 was a shut out. After getting dropped in the first quarter mile, there was no reason to keep sprinting another mile. It was a fun idea though.

On the upside, I was surprised to see part of the Mulberry Gap crew setting up a booth and doing some advertising. It made me miss those North Georgia trails and the whole summer of 2012 for that matter. I'm trying to talk the cycling team into a trip out there.

Sunday was the main event. I had some tough competition in a field of 10. I gave it my all right from the start. I think I was 5th into the woods. 1st and 2nd shot off quickly, but I hung with 3rd and 4th for a while. I knew I was faster than 4th uphill but the downhills put a gap between us. I attempted a pass once but he sprinted to block me. I ended up passing them both when they took a wrong turn at a poorly marked intersection. I got passed and then dropped. I might've held that position if it weren't for a cramp in my side.

I backed off the pace a little to recover and got passed a few times. This all happened in the first lap. For the second and third laps, I settled into a fast but comfortable pace. I even took a beer hand-up after a rocky switchback. I felt great!

I wound up in 7th out of 10 including one DNF. I was 11 minutes behind 1st and 5 minutes behind 2nd. I think with some good training this winter I can make up that difference. My new job should provide some good strength training; tomorrow is my first day driving for Rebel Rickshaw!

No Flow.

That was the theme of this weekend's race at Arkabutla Lake. While the trail system was decent, it wasn't a very fun race course. After pre-riding it last week, I almost didn't want to go to the race. But, I figured I should support the inaugural event and didn't have anything else to do. So I went.

The trail consisted of lots of roots. Lots and lots of big roots with no smooth line to be found. The few places where you could get some decent speed weren't worth the effort due to poorly placed sharp turns and switchbacks. For these reasons, I felt like I couldn't give it my all. When it comes to racing, cornering hard and maintaining momentum is my bread and butter; that lets me ride faster than riders with more power. This course, however, was 24 miles of short sprints and hard braking. Not much fun.

The good news is that the North Mississippi Trail Alliance - our new chapter of IMBA - has recently been approved to build up to 28 miles of trail on the other side of the lake. So, future races have a lot of potential.

During the race, I held second place until halfway through the last lap. On the first lap, I kept up with the guy in first pretty well but soon started falling behind. The guy in third was on my tail the entire time and was clearly a better rider. Had he passed me sooner, he probably could've kept up with first, but I guess he was content finishing second.

I partially blame the hardtail, as the top two guys were both on full suspensions. The roots sapped a lot of my energy, and it was difficult to keep the rear end planted in the bumpy turns. (puns intended, sort of). I've only had my new bike a few months, but I'm thinking of trading it for a full suspension. Not that it'll be faster overall, just more fun.