Laddies Loppet First Day

The annual Laddies Loppet Mountain Bike Stage Race this Labor Day weekend up at Maplelog. This is a weekend that we always look forward to as we spend three nights at Maplelag with a bunch of mountain bikers. Over the years we have made a lot good friends from all over the upper Midwest and Canada.

Race Director Jay Richard's doing a great job running the show. You can bet Jay appreciates all of the help that he gets from behind the scenes. Lot's of work to pull off a gig like this.

Today, Saturday there were two races. A time trial before lunch and a short track in the afternoon. Tomorrow is the cross country race which is always a good time. Matt and I have an advantage because we ride the trail a lot more then the majority of the other racers. Ben is racing tomorrow too. I will report on those results tomorrow. Getting ready to race the TT in the morning. Shay, John, Matt, Randy and Ben hanging around the F150. Kriston was not too happy that we brought the "race truck". All four of us in a standard cab was tight so Ben jumped in the back. Understandable concern......

Matt starting the TT. The new 29r rolling smooth. Matt finished in 00:12:18 - a great start to the stage race.
Matt flying on the short track race. He stayed consistent and caught all but 7 people. Another successful race. He is in the top 10 going into the cross country sport class tomorrow. Excellent results for a 14 year old. I was middle of the pack in the TT with a time if 00:11:24. I have the formula that the shorter the race the longer the warm up. I was at the starting line with a bead of sweat ready to go. Unfortunately I did not get into the groove until half way through the loop, not enough distance to make up any time. The short track was much better, but man did it hurt. 18 minutes plus one lap. We race with the expert women and they are tough. Jenna Zander and Kia Anderson were in the front of the pack the whole time. Kia crashed at around 10 minutes, dinged her knee, but was able to grab second overall. I stayed with the lead group throughout the race, and enjoyed the shenanigans that took place in the back straight. Lots of volleying for position as no one really wanted to pull the train but no one wanted to get dropped either. Lots of elbow rubbing and close calls. Other then Kia, everyone rode clean, what a great race. I ended up 5th overall. I will include all of the result links in the next post.

Lars Ellefson flew in late last week from Durango. Nice to catch up with him and the stories of living in MTB heaven. Both Lars and Jake Richards have jumped up to the Expert class and did very well in their races today.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day!