Rim Wrecker Race Report

As expected per the weather folks, snow was in store overnight to the tune of about 4". Woke up to this in Hermann.

Word had it that the Council Bluff area should not get that much snow. Funny how things go sometimes. With rain all day Saturday and snow overnight, Council Bluff was no better off than Hermann.

Arrived at race site to this.

Arrived just as the Marathon and Beginners took off.

We had the pleasure to ride on trail like this

Before the snow melted these two were ready to show the Marathon and Beginners a not so warm welcome to the trail head :)

By 12:30 the blue sky was working hard to show it's face melting off all the snow by the time my race was over.

So 12:30 arrives and off we go, Experts first followed by Sport and Single speeders. We did a short out and back on the pavement before sliding down the trail from the campground to the main trail for 12 plus miles of fun. Not sure how many of us there were, good guess 25 to 30 with 11 in my group, Sport 30+. I was about 10th overall going into the trail.

Near the bottom of the down hill slide and nice piece of mud flew in my eye. Not such a big deal except for the contact lens which was not happy with that. Had to pull over and yank the lens out before heading off again after several passed me by.

Wet, mud, rocky, and roots are quite possibly the worst conditions I could put myself in. I'm not the best technically and today exposed every weakness possible. I was here to grab points and do the best I could. The rest of the day I plugged along trying not to bite it too hard or get an unfortunate mechanical.

For most of the race I was out there with no other riders around. Near the half way point 3 single speeders passed by, after that I passed no one, and no one passed me.

I got to the end of the 12 mile loop at 1 hour 38 min, much slower than the 1 hour 16 min lap I did a few weeks ago on dry ground. But what can you expect with all the mud, did I mention the creek crossings so full of water that I know my bottom bracket was fully underwater on several occasions, and the fact that I had adjust my disc break pads several times?

This what all that looks like when done

Bike before

Bike after

To my surprise I crossed the line 3rd in my group.... this gives me 20 points today for a total 37 for the series which should be good enough to move me into 2nd overall behind last week and this weeks winner Ira Brown.

After what was a rewarding day the final step was to get all the mud washed out.

There is only one Mid West Fat Tire Series race in April, I'll miss that one for my Tour of Hermann event. Next points race is in May. Between now and then I plan to get out to Castlewood as much as I can to practice practice practice.

Big thanks to Andy and the rest of the RW crew for a great day!