Hot, Sunny Weekend!

The boys and I went to help Chad Weisgram move a swing set from his old house to his new house. Another friend, Dave Geske was there and he owns a sweet Dodge Viper and throws me the keys. Ben and I drove it down to South Fargo and thought we were something special. A very nice car. That was me in the photo above with Ben in the co-pilot seat.
Saturday night was the 5th Annual FM Duathlon, an event that I have put on every summer at this time. The weather was perfect - 23 racers in total. Everyone finished safe and sound which will allow me to sleep better this week. I had a bunch of excellent volunteers that make it all possible. I am waiting on some photos and will post more at that time.
Sunday morning we headed for Jamestown for the annual Pipestem Dam MTB race. The start time was 10am which helped with the heat situation. It is inevitable that that place is like an oven every year. Matt, Ben and I all participated. I was a bit upset with the cost of the race, even Ben was $30. I realize that there are expenses and the numbers are low, but it is a catch 22, as there are people that will not race with the entrance fees that high especially the beginners or young kids and that is what is needed to grow the sport.
Anyway, this race is famous for wearing you out. There were only 8 guys in the expert field that had to race three 8 mile loops. I felt good and was ready to race. The Bismarck guys were there in force. Dennis Kemmeset, Brian Beatie, Mark Liebig - I was the sole GPCC rider but that was OK. Brian and a Seth (from UMD) took off fast and I followed. 2 miles into the race my chain started skipping. My first thought was that my derailleur was out of wack so I was adjusting on the fly. I eventually unscrewed the barrel adjuster almost all the way out which required me to stop which allowed the other 5 guys to pass me quickly. Luckily I noticed that I had a bad link on my new SRAM hollow pin chain, I was able to find the bad link quickly and made the necessary on trail adjustments. I ended up getting off of the bike 3 times which cost me almost 5 minutes. I passed Dennis, Jim and Mark right away, but there was no way that I was going to grab Brian and Seth. This course is relentless - no areas to recover as you go up a ravine and then down a ravine followed by a quick switch back and another climb. Rolling on a rigid was killing me. On the third lap I was looking forward to the climbs as my arms were fatigued from the downhills. Overall, it was a great event. I ended up 3rd overall, 1st in my age group - 2:12:00 in the saddle - long race. It would have been nice to have 20 more riders, but not sure if that will happen in the near future.
Both Matt and Ben were first in their age groups. It was nice to see Ben on the trail. I passed him towards the end of his loop and he said that he had chain suck. After the race there was a piece of timber in his chain that was causing all of the problems. Ben didn't care - he had a great time. Matt raced on his new 29r for the first time and kicked butt. He was first in his age group and 3rd over all in the Sport class. The course was perfect for him.
Kriston shot this photo of me out on the prairie. What a beautiful state. You don't get this at a Minnesota race. As usual, Kriston was out in full force and helped keep us hydrated and happy. She knows a lot of people at the MN races and did her best to get acquainted with the ND people too. Great day and great weekend!