Cal State Dirt #3. Hoot trail

[Greg Alsterlind]

Another super fun trai near Nevada city. The YBONC group has upped their game with electric timing and larger attendance. I missed this race last year but heard that it had a good flow trail. I would say it is the best flow trail I have ridden. I raced the CAT 50+ class that had us ride 3 x 7 1/2 mile laps. The best part was this 4 plus minute flow section. Hearing that there was nothing to rough or technical about the course , I choose to ride my hard tail. The main climb was a 5 mintute 500’ switch back section they call Zipper up. After a short hole shot at the start I jumped on the wheel of Craig Manning (3rd) who was right behind Paul Miers (1st). We made our way down popping in and out of a dry creek bed with short sometimes steep banks. This seemed to be about 2 miles long and took about 5 mintutes. We seemed to be avdveraging about 27 miles per. Hour. I had Craig Lindberg (4th) Douglas Houston (6th) and Phil Smith (2nd) right on my tail the whole time. Just before the trail tuned to tight single track we entered a camp area. After a quick couple of switchbacks we started a 1/2 mile of easy climbing before the Flow section. Craig Lindberg decided the 10-12’ I was keeping between me and Craig Manning was to much so he jump in front of me. The speed and effort it required left me unconcerned with my current position. Our group stayed together all the way to the bottom of 5he flow trail. As we started to climb the zipper we began to spread out. Phil Smith shot by me like I was standing still. I stayed with Craig Manning till the end of the switchback and then pulled up. I was feeling much better than I did at Round Moutain but still not strong engough to hang with the leaders. The rest of my race was just pacing myself. I saw one young rider on lap 2 and was passed by 3 or 4 single speeders on lap 3. In the end I finished 5th of 7. Normally I would be bummed with yet another poor performance but after how weak I felt at Round Mountain, I am encouraged by my progress. Being 5 minutes +/- slower than team mates  Mark Ingerwersen (4th in Cat 1 40-49) and about 13 minutes behind Jim Hewett (1st. Pro) seems like I am close to being back to the fitness I had last year?