Sunflower State Games, Topeka

Turned out to be a great day for racing, and on a surprisingly nice course. Its not what I thought it was going to be when we arrived. Randy and I pulled up and there was know one around, I mean know one. We asked some folks in their cars if they knew where a mtb race was being held and they had no clue. We eventually found out that we were in the right spot, but I initially thought this was going to be a cluster f*#k of a race! Once they got everything up and running it all went pretty smooth. We parked next to JP Brocket and fam, at registration saw Travis and Garrett from Ethos.

Took off on a pre lap(ish) and much to my dismay found that the start consisted of ½ mile or so of gravel walking trail. So right from the get go I knew riding my single speed with zero spinning ability I was going to have to work hard to catch up with the leaders right from the start.

The start went off like I knew it would, spinning like crazy while folks were whizzing by me in their large rings. At the end of the walking trail I finally got onto an area that leveled the playing field a little. Was about 12 back until then when I worked my way back to the top 5 before hitting the single track. From then it was the same story, I did really well on the single track and then lost 100/150 yards on the walking trail. Had one little mechanical and had to deal with my rear wheel (not sold on horizontal dropouts) but that really did not take up too much time.

Second lap I took it a little easy and wanted to finish strong. Tony riding directly in front of me had the same idea however. I charged on him once I got out of the walking trail heading out on the third lap. He saw me coming for him and put on the gas. I kept expecting to see him on some of the switchbacks but never did. I headed out to the home stretch out in a field where I finally saw him and a little too far for me to catch him before the finish. Took 3rd by 20+ seconds.

I would really like to beeoch and complain that I could have done much better if the ½ mile of gravel walking trail was not there. But John from Cow Town won my Cat 2 race on a single speed and Garrett from Ethos flippen KILLED it on his.

All in all it was a great day for racing and I am also stoked that the Hippy got back on the bike and racing! First race since bonebender for him. Did well, hope he had fun!

I will post some pics if I can find them… Results are here…..