Today was the inaugral Twine Ball CX–brand new course and a promoter new to CX. I originally didn’t know if I would go, but I missed Wednesday’s training race due to exhaustion, so I figured another race situation before Powderhorn tomorrow would be good. The leg and hip are mostly healed from last week’s crash, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

The drive took Nate, CJ, Eric and I to the “outskirts” of Darwin, MN, home to the world’s largest ball of twine. (Don’t ask me how big; we never went to see it, although not racing around it was a bit of a let down.) Beautiful country, under a mostly sunny sky that was quickly turning to mostly cloudy. The park features a tallish knoll (50-75 feet, i’d guess) right in the middle, that I was sure would be included. Sure enough, the course looked brutally tough. Warm-up laps told me it was downright sketchy and too technical for my tastes and skills. The slow rise to the run-up on the last bit of the knoll was okay, but the drop off the other side was nasty and I almost went down the first time through when my rear wheel skidded sideways going around the first of many, bumpy, greasy switchbacks. That led to the only fast (downhill) portion straight into a set of barriers on a rooty singletrack run-up, which was followed by more rooty, greasy/muddy singletrack including one hill that was unrideable. Out of the woods, back to a wide wildgrassy stretch with another greasy short, but not too steep, hill that was rideable (barely) to the last turn into the finish.

As someone said during my warm-up–”didn’t know I would be downhilling today” or need a full helmet, full-suspension, and body armor. My goal quickly morphed to surviving the day with no crashes. I was so low key about it, I never really got a good warm-up in, but I parked myself at the start to get good positioning because I wanted to be among the first to get through that nasty downhill stretch. First time up the knoll, in 5th or 6th place. Passed two or three more on the greasy grassy climb and two more on the run-up to move into second (how’s this happening?). I was certain I would get caught from behind eventually, and was secretly hoping for it for awhile. The Other Guy was in front of me, and I didn’t care to try to chase him down, largely because I wanted to race well again tomorrow.

Last lap, I took it super easy, just trying to ride it clean and not lose my place to stupidity. At the top of the knoll, Eric is telling me I still have 30 seconds. By the time I am half-way down, he yells something like “he’s closing in”, but I don’t know what he’s talking about. I come out of the woods and Eric’s there again telling me he’s right on me. When I look back, I see that a rider I wasn’t looking for has closed down to within 10 meters of me. I focus on getting up the greasy grassy hill and punch it once I’m over the top. I look back at the corner and see that I’ve got plenty of room and coast in for second, a ways behind Guy.

Taking 2nd was a bit anti-climactic since I never really felt like I was racing after the first lap; it felt like a rather slow technical ride for most of the day and my HR monitor showed it: average HR was 166 (ten below my usual) and max was 182, which I’m sure was on the first time up the knoll. My legs are feeling pretty good, so I hope tomorrow can be a good day.

andy