Dirt Crit #1 was awesome! This was my first time in the A race and it hurt like hell. Raced the B's last year and that was a ton of fun so the A's would be the same fun but just longer, right? The loop is completely flat with one creek crossing. The field section included the dreaded spiral of death. I finished around 23rd place (an official scoring error had initially scored me 2nd -yeah, right!) out of 40 or so starters. I lined up between Casey F. Ryback (I think the F is for fearless) and Ryan Lemmon. Out of the gate CFR and I locked handlebars and I almost went down. Sweet. Then into the first turn where someone did go down. Unclip and wait until the mess clears and we go again into the sprial of death which resulted in more slowing and waiting. Once out of the spiral the speeds picked up and so did my heart rate. Fast and flowy, round and round, there's not a let up to the pace for 40+ minutes. Passed a few riders and got passed. I got lapped by the eventual winner, Chris Ploch. Not surprising.
Dan Miller continues to impress by finishing second on his singlespeed. Awesome. Dan mentioned that he's looking to carpool with folks from Mid-MO so if any of Red Wheelers are coming up for future Dirt Crits, contact Dan.
This is such a fun and well run race. Plus there's food and beer afterwards. Big thanks to Pfoodman and Alpine Shop and the other sponsors!
A few photos:
Me. (photo credit: climberstephen)
Justin laying waste to the B Race.
Can't wait 'til next week!
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