Tamarancho

[shiloh]

The Tamarancho Dirt Classic is just  a few miles form my front door so there are zero excuses for passing it up. This race is mostly singletrack with very few places to pass cleanly.  Aggressive riding can pay off.  Bike Monkey organized the event this year and they did a good job of spreading out the classes to reduce the amount of lapped riders. 

The start line was packed with many strong pro racers, and many racers who I have gotten comfortable mixing it up with at the Summit Shorty.  We charged hard out of the gate.  As the dust rose a rider tied to make a move for better position on my left.  We tangled handlebars and he went down. I somehow stayed upright and made a move for better position.  another 30 seconds in there was another crash, two or three bikes down and causing a traffic jam.  luckily I was positioned right so that I could slip right through. 

On the steep loose climb before singletrack a few guys spun out, and again I was lucky to have picked a good line to get by them without incident. 

Sucking dust in the middle of a train dropping down serpentine. Another down rider, turned out to be Jim.  This may be the first time I've been ahead of him in a race. heading down alchemist another racer went down just feet in front of me.  Jim caught back onto my wheel and I let him by a few minutes later. 

I made some good passes the first time up Dead Heffer.  Then got sprinted out at the entrance to Endor.  I basically Buzzed that guys tire the whole way down.  But wasn't able to get around him until the fire road to complete the first lap. 

Now things had settled down a bit.  Will Curtis was charging hard trying to make up ground after a crash at the start.  I let him by, then he dropped his chain, he caught me again, then dropped his chain again. 

By the end of my second lap I was only seeing lapped riders form the cat 1 class.  I pushed through most of the third lap alone.  occasionally motivated by the sound of tires behind me.  Then I spotted The bright yellow Jersy of Ryan Chandler ahead of me.  Maybe he has cracked and I can make up one more position, I thought.  But it was not to be. 

I finished in 9th place 2:07.  happy with that.

[Jim Hewett]

Very nice work!