Having missed out on the Vermont 50 with broken ribs I opted to extend the season and step out of my comfort zone by racing an XC format 6 hour race at Cathedral Pines State Park. Course conditions were perfect with each lap consisting of 9.5 miles of super buff, narrow, twisty singletrack, less then 300' of climbing per lap and a 1/2 mile lap through the pit area. Avoiding the temptation to go with the pack on the first lap I settled into a pace with all 7 laps +/- 2 minutes of each other. Patience paid off and I was able to close out the season on top of the box in Masters with an 11 minute cushion, 27th overall out of 250 and collar one of these awesome medals.

We have a local series that isn't too public. Beer runs. Pretty simple, beer entry fee, race a super D style course, winner shares "pot" with losers. Tons-o-fun and low budget (unless your group is a bunch a beer snobs like us). Anyway, we did three this season. All three runs were won by different riders. All three riders have GRASSROOTS. Chad Miller, Travis Coldsmith, and Moi. So I decided to add a team classification to the mix.

Trophies taste gooood, you should try the muffins.







We're all winners!

Dark Horse Cycles hosted an end of the season team mtb/orienteering event in the woods of Stewart State Forest, home to Singlespeed-a-Palooza and the Dark Horse 40.
I was the "lucky" one to be paired with Mike Montalbano, previous winner in singlespeed of the Shenandoah 100 and Mohican 100.
Using a time trial format we were the second to last of 12 teams out on the course. Maximum speed and pain was obtained by our team and despite getting lost and riding an extra 3-4 miles we managed to get all the card punches in and were the first team to cross the line in a winning time of 55:05 for the 16 mile course.