Kincaid

This past Saturday at noon we (Team Allez) began the two person 12 hour mountain bike race at Kincaid park. A new friend I made through road racing, John Cole, was the other half and the weather was perfect for us - approaching 70 degrees and sunny. The course was 10.5 miles of fast doubletrack and technical singletrack with 1,100 ft. of climbing per lap. On my first lap, I missed a turn that wasn't marked very well and added about a mile to my lap by backtracking to the point I flew past. That lap was 57:26 and the next five laps were 51:40, 52:53, 54:41, 53:36, and 52:56. The slightly faster last lap was, I believe, due to the fact the my wife Michelle came out at around 10:00 p.m. and brought me some Mirror Pond Pale Ale. It was supposed to be a post-race treat but a cold beer was too good to pass up. I downed the bottle and headed out for my last lap with Ben Harper in the earphones and the sun just beginning to sink toward the horizon. It was a nice way to finish off a day of racing Fango 63 miles up and down hills through the woods. And John was no slouch - he knocked out 5 laps at right around an hour each... and he stayed cool when, on his first lap, he broke his chain. I started freaking out when I missed a turn - I would have gone berserker if I broke my chain. His persistence to head out on to his next lap strong and finish strong with a few positive words in our brief exchange as I rode away for another lap made the event quite enjoyable. Thanks John... see you next time.