Crocodile Rock Race Report

Headed down to Perry Lake Sunday with Roger Ptomey and Darrel Williams to do the Crocodile Rock MTB race that Lyle Riedy was hosting. Jim Spellman, Brad Riley, Jason Douglas and the Water Doctor boys also were there so St. Joseph had a good showing.
The event was extremely well run and the course was rocky but still very fast.
I entered the Cat 1 old man group (40-49) which turned out to be the largest group for the Cat 1's... approx. 9 or 10 guys.
They split our category into two groups at the start. We took off second after the 19-29 and 30-39 groups.
I was probably 5th or 6th entering the single track. Ended up getting passed by several guys as I was not riding aggressive enough at the start. I eventually started to work my way up but ran into a bit of a snag trying to pass Chris Locke. We hooked handlebars as I was trying to get past him and we both ended up going down. Chris was not happy and had a few choice words (of course I appologized several times). Anyway, we both got going and he eventually let me by.
In the process several guys, including Doug Long, passed us. I caught back up to Doug and rode out the rest of the lap behind as he was going at a pretty good clip and taking good lines.
On the second lap Doug let me by and I eventually worked my way past a few guys and caught up to Brian Duff. I followed Brian for a ways and eventually passed him only to have him pass me back as I was getting another bottle going through the feed zone (big thanks to Roger P for the bottle hand off!)
I followed Brian for the entire 3rd lap and let him set the pace. As we came through the feed zone he was taking a bottle and I passed him there.
About a half a mile or so into the lap there is a short switchback climb. I accelerated up this section and got a little gap on Brian. From there on out I just tryed to be smooth over the rocks and keep the pace high enough to stay in front of Brian.
I ended up finishing in 4th place but found out I was only 10 seconds out of third (wish I had known that before I finished)
Fitness level is a little off here lately but I was satisified with the outcome and the race was an absolute blast with the rocky sections... Not much climbing but still very fun to ride.
Also, Jim Spellman layed down a second place finish in his race so congrats to him.
Good times and a big thanks to Lyle Riedy and his crew for putting on a great event!
Hope to see you guys at RIM
CH