Mudaliscious

Hot or cold there is nothing like a cup at the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic. After a solid night of hard rain we raced. And my wife Misao cheered me on.

Missed Wednesday night's club race but came out Thursday, Friday evenings and Saturday to try the Alpha Trail since I had never ridden it. It was under water and taken out of the loop, but then again much of what we rode was under water. Advantage to those with mud tires and disk brakes. Some gave up. Others like me found our tires frequently frozen tight with mud. And we carried it as it dragged on our tires up the long climbs the course is known for. Lost over 4 lbs.

Again about 20 minutes behind the leader in our class. Ten minutes between the top two finishers and the rest of our class. Must have been the only ones with the right tires. It would be interesting to see how last years citizen Clydesdale series winner was doing in sport class but he only raced once this year.

If I always had the right tires, disk brakes, dropped 45 lbs coming in barely at weight and had one of the better bikes could I take 20 minutes off my time? I think difficult if only training four hours a week but maybe some medals. 2009 is likely sport class for me by the guidelines.