Summit Shorty #2

[Philip Mooney]

The Shorty's are everything I love about bike racing. 6 laps on the mountain bike on a course that's half easy climbing and half tight singletrack during a series that consists of 6 consecutive races in the spring. It's a mid week series that doesn't take up the weekend and valuable family time. It's close to home, and it takes me 20 minutes to ride there. You race with your friends (or soon-to-be-friends) in the local community. Plus you get to smash on the pedals! I was out of town last week and missed the first race, so I was chomping at the bit to have the pain begin. I mainly race myself on Strava and don't get too many race days in a year, so I relish the opportunity to push myself and face off against other guys. And boy oh boy do I have to push myself with the short and hard efforts this race requires.

On to the race itself. The final race of the day consists of the A and A 35+ categories, and a group of 13 took to the start line. About half way through the first lap, the group had seperated and we were down to the cast of 5 characters that would be contesting the win. Here's who we had:

Otis Lyons: Otis is in high school and comes from a family of edurance athletes. His dad is a stud on the road. His older brother is a shredder on the dirt that used to ride for Bear Dev. He himself is following their lead and becoming a great racer himself. Word on the street is that he's leading the JV series in the NorCal league. The kid (young man?) has talent. I will note that I liked him a lot better 5+ years ago when I was still a pro and he was a little 10 year old kid that couldn't make me hurt. Alas, times have changed and he can dish out the pain at will. I don't think we're friends any more.

Dylan Fryer: I met Dylan right before the race, and quickly surmissed that his easy going manner and quick smile masks an inner sadist who wishes nothing more than to punish me on my bike. He rides for Bear Dev and attends high school at Drake High.  He's also really skinny. He rubbed his skinniness in my face every time we hit the climb. Dylan, you are my mortal enemy!

Sebastian Dow: I also met Sebastian right before the race. I think by now you're getting an idea about these high school guys. He's friendly. He's skinny. He's faster than me. And he races hard in the NorCal league. You'll need to do more than that to distinguish yourself in my eyes. All of you NorCal League racers are faster than me!

Mark Gibson: Mark and I didn't get to chat before the race, and I was too tired and defeated afterwards to stay and hang out, but I hope to get to know him as the series progresses. That being said, his legend preceeds him and I often see his name atop the Strava leaderboards in the area. So I knew that it would be a battle on race day.

Phil Mooney: Then there was little old me. A guy who loves riding and racing my bike. If nothing else, I have "experience" on my side. Turns out that didn't help me win.

With such a long buildup to the race itself, you'd think I'd have a really detailed report to go along with it. Sorry to let you down, but the race was very straightforward. The 5 of us stayed together the first 5 laps. There was a strong headwind on the climb so we never really hit it hard. Just before we entered the last lap all the skinny high school racers decided they had enough and went hard. I did my best to get in the way and managed to gap off Otis. They continued to go fast and I continued to go not-as-fast until we hit the finish line. I ended up in 4th place.

Such a fun event and such a fun race! Thanks to the organizers and my fellow racers for making it happen. I've got a week to recover from that effort, and then I'll be ready to come back with a vengeance next week!

Final Results:

1) Dylan Fryer

2) Sebastian Dow

3) Otis Lyons

4) Phil Mooney

5) Mark Gibson

[Mark Gibson]

Great race Phil - let's team up next week and maybe we can beat at least one of these damn kids!  Or maybe we'll just get our souls destroyed yet again.....