Dirty Spokes 6 Hour Race

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Fort Yargo 6 Hour Race

After having no luck with the cross-country races I decided to get back to what I am better at. The crashes and broken bike parts were really bringing my spirits down. So, with all that in mind, I decided to make a run at the Dirty Spokes 6 hour series. I finished fourth at the first race in Athens, GA after some severe cramps and dehydration that had my legs looking like a little alien was going to pop out at any moment.

The weather was looking horrible as usual and I was actually thinking this might be good for me as some of the other riders had a definite advantage on the smooth power course at Fort Yargo. The climbs were short and punchy with no extended sections to be found.

After getting to the start line late, I was a little further back than I preferred. Sitting around 40th place I looked down and realized the guy in front of me was in his granny gear for a small downhill start. After contemplating this for a moment I decided to take my chances starting in a thorn bush off to the side in the woods.

We were off. Surprisingly, I moved up rather fast and after the parade lap I found myself in ninth still carrying momentum. The first lap started out as a fast one and I soon found myself at the front. This was a little motivation to go for the fastest lap since I was not sure how much longer I would stay there.

The next several laps left me settled in at a comfortable pace in 4th place. I felt this was all right and that the pace was steady enough to pull the leaders back later in the race. This strategy proved me to be a fool as the leaders were really pushing each other and setting a solid, strong pace.

After chasing and chasing in no mans land I pulled some time back, but found myself finishing in fourth place seventy- seven miles later. I did however lay down the fastest lap of the whole race (which earned a nice set of road wheels) and also took the series overall lead with one race to go.

This was an uplifting result and the best part was no wrestling matches with trees or parts failing at the wrong time all the time.