Thursday, August 27, 2009

Big Valley Race Weekend

The other night I had the chance to preview the mountain bike loop at Camp Manitoc in Peninsula. Kevin Daum and the boys have done a great job with the course. There are some very nice new sections and a few re-routes. The course is about 9.7 miles and features approximatley 850 feet of climbing. The course is in awesome shape, perfect actually.

Kevin and his band of volunteers work their ass off, so please support this race. This race weekend gets bigger and better every year and now features kids races, bike demos from Specialized and Jamis, and a velo swap meet. This is our once a year opportunity to ride in the forbidden CVNP. Don't miss out on all the fun and activities.

For all you roadies and aspiring cyclocross racer here is a piece of advice.....go to Peninsula this weekend and hone your off road skills. There is no better preparation for 45/60 minute cross race, than a 1 to 2 hour lung searing, leg burning mountain bike race.

I did two laps on Tuesday and three more yesterday. I rode steady at about 85% and managed a 48 minute lap. Assuming the conditions remain the same, I would expect the fastest experts to clock lap times in the low 40 second range or maybe lower, those frickers are fast.

Later,
BRD

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