MNSCS #1 in the bag

What a great day for a race. Very little wind, sunny and good temps. The crowds looked big the general buzz around the race was positive. People were excited to back in competition.
This year we had a full field of Sport racers for BCR, so there was a lot of orange. Great to see that again. Same went for Comp - 5 total racers, wow.

The course this year was different in that we would be running it backwards - say what?

Charlotte also had her first race today and she was pretty excited. We had her line up at the line for some good photo ops. However, once the kids were all lined up around her, it was apparent that she may get run over. She was brave though, and handled the start like a champ and took off on her Strider bike. The lap was part of our course and longer than what I thought it was going to be. Still, she stuck to it and rode like a champ. She crashed once (like her daddy), got help from me twice, and missed the finish line (also like daddy). After we were done, she said in her cute little voice "I wanna go 'gain."

Now it was time for my race. I lined up near the front because there was no prologue lap and I saw the Sport racers bunch up like mad into the singletrack. Andy M. said his first lap was slower by 5 minutes due to the pileup. I was hoping to avoid as much of that as I could. I was just behind Wiken at the line and rocketed off on GO. I have a great start, just not enough gas to keep it for the entire race. I managed to stay near the front entering the singletrack and was cruising along pretty well. I made some quick decision passes when people dabbed or went offline and had a good pace going. I got stuck behind a CX bike and he rode wide, meaning he filled up the trail, so it was hard to pass him. I held on until the rock drop and when he went around I took the rock and passed him. There was a train behind him, so I had to push it to make more time. I managed to stay in front of Wiken the entire first lap - yay! But then early in the 2nd lap I called out a pass to the right and the person moved right, hitting my bars and sending me into the weeds. I heard my shifters hit the carbon as they crossed the top tube. When I got back on I realized my shifter pod for the rear was busted and not working. I was stuck in this gear. Luckily my front derailleur worked, so I had something to work with. However, the gears were never really all that great, so I lost a lot of places trying to make things work. Wiken passed. More riders passed. Dan passed and more riders passed. I limped it home got a nice hug from Charlotte and we shared chocolate milk to celebrate our races.

Thanks to everyone who showed up to respresent BCR today!
Matt H.
Scott M.
Andy M. - in stealth mode with no BCR jersey
Jess W. - in stealth mode with no BCR jersey
Dave B.
Shane M. - in stealth mode with no BCR jersey
Neil O.
Dan I.
Marc W.
Chris D.
Tim W.
(did I forget anyone?)
And of course friends and family who gave us water, cheered and helped us out - you rock.

On a sadder note - Wiken takes the lead in the BCR Smackdown Score:


And now the pics: