Getting faster, slowly...

The weekend started off with the long haul from Duluth to Darwin, home of the worlds largest Twine ball.
The race changed from last year, the large hill was eliminated to my disappointment, but I managed to cope with the loss for I received a wonderful gain. We (the Specialized team) got our skin suits Saturday. New things usually make me happy. The only issue I had with it is that since it is designed for cross it is a bit thicker, and for some odd reason it was 80 deg. But that problem should be remedied very soon, and then I will be very happy for the thinker suit. Anyhow, thanks to Mr. Hartney and Specialized for that.

On to the race... As it has been established it was hot. Not that I mind to much, just a change from the 42 and rain in Duluth.
The evening before I had the inkling of a sore throat, which I promptly tried to ignore, but one never knows how much that affects your performance. The race was off nonetheless and I did not feel like crap right way. The race spread out quick due to the single track and I was positioned well, until the barriers where I dropped my chain. After that I rode with Mr. Roy, Mr. Thorlson, and Mr. Anderson. There were a few attacks, a fair amount of hurt, some stayed away, some did not. In the end Mr. T got away, Mr. Roy got around before the last corner, and a bit before that Mr. Anderson got tired.
I know I can still go faster, lots faster, I just gotta figure out how.

Stolen from Linda

Sunday was a late start, luckily. I got some good sleep and felt a bit better in the morning. And luckily I had lots of time to find the race, not being that familiar with the Cities I don't know what some of the things on the directions mean. Anyhow the course was, surprisingly, the most single track yet this year. Good thing I have been training on it a fair amount. Starting position was very important, and I played it right and was right up there. Things were going pretty well for most of the race. Then not to my surprise, on the the bumpy downhill my chain popped off and the group that had just formed around me got away. I managed to chase down 1 guy by the end, but there went 3 places. Other than that things went well.
On the chain note, I spent a few hours dinking with it, and hopefully it works now.

Morgan and Matt (Olaf friends) showed up and took some photos.