Howell Mountain Challenge

My contacts are burning, I'm tired and I want to watch a movie, so pretty much I am red-lining the whining right now. BUT, some of our group was able to put down the WINNING, which I figure more than off sets my whining...The quick and dirty is:

Bri finished her first sport race...and it was a toughie! Temps in the high 80's to low 90's and a course of 20+ miles for her was waiting and she was a bit fearful of some pre-race demons over some of her past experiences here. NO PROBLEM! She paced herself off the start and rode a smart and consistent race to finish what was a very challenging event. Much better than her other 2 events here!

The team also had some success in the old man's class and the women's expert class, which just adds more evidence to the argument that Pro Joe and Smurfette make that "Oh yeah, I only ride PART TIME...I'm not REALLY training". Since this seems to be both of their mantra's I would say they both must be doing something right as they both pedaled away to convincing victories! That's it. More candy and couch time. Less pedal time!

Alex, Chris and Travis all competed in the large 35+ class. This year they went with big "cccx style" classes, whereas last year it was more of the "standard" 5 year age group classes. Despite the big groups Alex bested his time from last year by quite a bit and other than a few crashes (Come on we are talking about ALEX here!) rode a VERY strong race. I would say his "worlds" training is on schedule.

Chris paced me off the start and I was able to sneak away during the race and eventually catch up to Travis who had a strong start, nice work! I put down a typical "Butler Redneck Dirt Bike Cheater Line" pass on him in the woods and was pretty pumped that I still remember how to get through the trees. At the finish Chris and Travis both pedaled in strong but I think Travis is looking for a bit more "cush" in his future!

Brett and I did our typical "slow" starts and while Brett rode to a similar time as last year, I was a bit worried about conquering the 3 laps required of the experts. With the heat (Dontcha just love Monterey Fog for training...) I was a tad cautious, but by the end I had definitely achieved my goal of going molecular. I don't think there is a cell in my body that didn't get punished today.

Big congrats to my NorCalPal, Clint Claussen. He won like his 100th race in a row! Ok, not really, but the guy is riding great and he was battling for the overall placings today. Nice job!

Ok, candy and movie time! Hopefully, more pictures to come later in the week!