TBF mountain bike madness!!!!!!!!!

[Danny Kelly McNaughton]

This "race report" is a little late.

I was given the day off work to go up to NAHBS (handmade bike show) in Sac. Sunday Feb 28th, so I figured I'd race the TBF Granite Bay Folsom Lake XC race that morning. It was called "Mountain Bike Madness". The TBF people have different names for all their races on the same course-madness, celebration, classic, gold rush, etc..

I was able to get a whole 8.5 mi lap in before the race and it reminded me that the course is really fun and takes concentration to efficiently navigate because there is little climbing, the speed is fast, and one is pedaling almost the entire time. 

The race was combined w/ a high school race. The start was fast and I was racing about 8-9 people for the first few minutes but after a bit a group broke off of 6 and I just hung on for the first lap. I would lose contact through the single track a bit and could somewhat easily get back on during the more straight sections.  By the last half of lap two I was losing the top four and just hanging on to the fifth rider (they all seemed about 15-20yrs old).

I ended up leaving behind sixth place and had a lot of fun doing a prolonged sprint a minute and a half out or so to the finish to beat fifth place into fourth.

And I vomited about 30 secs after the finish. I felt fine, but it was an "I have eaten cereal too close to the start" thing, I think.. kinda funny.

Anyway, hats off to the winner, fast kid Dave Duncan (who put 3 mins or so on me) and all the other super strong young riders. I felt good all race but just couldn't hang w/ efficiently navigating basic twisting single track, in and out of the saddle back and forth, w/ the top 3 kids. 

I was 4th overall w/ a time of 1:41 and change.  There were only 6 racing pro and another 50 or so experts and high school kids.

It was cool to see a team mate (I'm guessing Jennifer??) and I hollered at her as we passed each other racing and she gave me the "go Acme" back.

I stuck w/ the hardtail Trek Paragon w/ the 36t w/ 10x42 and a Rocket Ron front and Maxxis Ikon in back. Basic Reba fork. No dropper needed. I will be riding a full suspension w/ dropper for the next races (Sonomas, NVDC, Lemurian).

Looking forward to SoNoMas and have some cruise intervals, power jumps, tabadas and such planned before then.

Would like to do Lake Sonoma Classic, but my job won't allow it and there's even a possibility that SoNoMas will be jeopardized for me, but I don't even wanna think about that.

NAHBS was much more fun than I thought and I loved seeing all the "non-production" bikes and all the awesome specific rides and purposes they had. Made me wanna ride even more.

The next day was a great recovery ride near Nevada City on Round Mountain's trails, even though I drank a little more than I would have liked at the NAHBS deal.

'Til next time...