Iceman Recap

Forgot to post Iceman recap and forgot to take pictures...looser.

Signed up for Iceman again in March. Was looking forward to it, however, riding was scattered (went to Mohican a couple times and raced cross). I had a new bike for the race...2012 Specialized Stumpjumper 29er Expert...so that was nice.

At the last minute, I decided to take dad's RV. I was able to convince Bob Rodgers to come along. After a 6.5 hour drive on Friday we parked at the finish venue....a nice RV and camoing resort called Timber Ridge in Traverse City, Michigan. Also brought half a keg of leftover PBR from the cross race....nice too.

Ross, Jeff Pendlebury and Ross met us up there along with Tommy K, Tuscan and others. We hit up the expo and packet pick up before heading out for a early dinner. The group of us retired to the RV for a camp fire and a few beers. Hit the rack at about midnight and discovered that the heat was not working in the RV. It was a cold night, but a sub 30 sleeping bag was a life saver.

Morning came and Ross/Steve picked us up at 7:30am so that we could get to the start for my 4th wave start. This year the waves were seeded based on last years times. It worked out well as I stayed with the lead group for the first 10 miles. Tommy K. was in the wave ahead of me and I was shocked to catch him (he was 3 mins ahead) at about 15 miles in. When the hills started in the last 7 miles, Tommy K caught me with about 5k to go and promply put 2:40 into me. So I ended up beating him by 20 seconds. My time was faster than I expected at just under 2 hours good for 11th in my age group out of 100 or so.

After the race, we headed over to RV which was nice, as most racers had to shuttle 40 minutes back to the start. We watched Steve and Jeff race with the pros which was cool. After the party wrapped up we all hung out around a camp fire with Brandon, Brent and a few of their buddies and told lies and talked bikes/bike racing well into the evening. Good times.

Here is link to racy pictures.

Later,

BRD