6/1/08…The Lewis Morris Challenge…Morristown, NJ…

This Sunday was race #3 in the Campmor H2H series, The Lewis Morris Challenge, put on by Marty’s Reliable Cycle. It was a gorgeous day and a super fun, yet very hard course, filled with rolling climbs that took you off guard at first and an amazingly flowing second half. Experts rocked 4 laps of the 6 plus mile course. It was also fairly close to home, which meant my wife and kids got to come, as well as tons of fellow mountain bikers, and old friends.

So being that Lewis Morris is only about 30 minutes from my house, I got to sleep in a little extra and take my time eating breakfast and getting my car and cooler packed. I went up a little early to cheer on some of my Sport Class racer friends, 2 of which podiumed, one on a Fisher 29′er!! I also got to meet the MTBNJ race team’s mascot, Shaniqua. She was nice, but didn’t say much, actually, she didn’t say anything, even though she had her mouth wide open the whole time.

My race went fairly good, I’m not particularly great on courses without a lot of elevation, but I tried to hold my own. I started by getting the holeshot, again, and went through the first few climbs out front. I got passed by series leader Greg Waggonner and soon 2 more guys, one of which crashed on a switchback right in front of me, and took me out. By the time we got back on our bikes, much of the field went by. I pushed pretty hard on the few climbs there were to pick off a few guys here and there. I got a few more putting the power down through the start/finish area going into lap #2. I pretty much stayed where I was from that point, and settled into tempo for the remaining 3 laps. It was pretty awesome how many people were cheering for me as I came through each lap, I never realized I had so many friends out there!! It was also my first time using a “Pitstick” to hold my bottles, which I should have done sooner, it’s just one less thing I need to worry about. I was also a little concerned about my 1×9 gear set-up, I thought my top speed would not be high enough, and I would get dropped on the fire roads, but after getting the holeshot and making good passes on the wide-open sections, I know the gear is plenty tall enough. I ran the 2.1 Dry-X tires, 30 psi front, 32 psi rear, perfect tire choice. I also ran my fork pre-load a few psi higher with the compression turned a few clicks tighter, again, a perfect setup. The “Para-Fly” was dialed!!

I ended up 10th out of 25 starters. 4 laps in just under 2 hours, I was 9 minutes off the winner, which I was happy with given the speed of the course. All-in-all it was a great race and I really had a good time, so my placement didn’t matter so much. Having said that, I am changing my training program a little so I can be more competitive on the flat stuff.

I have to thank first and foremost, my wife and 2 boys for coming out to the race and cheering me on. My wife even tried to do bottles for me, but we went by too fast for her to get me, another reason I was glad to have my new pitstick a few yards up the trail, but she tried, I give her credit for that. Also I need to give props to Nathan Crisman who was at the event taking some of the best race pictures I’ve ever seen, he snapped the 2 of me seen here. I really hope he continues to come out to the races to capture some more great shots!! At of course, I need to thank Gary Fisher bikes and our 29′er Crew ring leader Travis Ott, for giving me the opportunity to race with the coolest gear on the planet!!

See you next round, H2H #4 “The Darkhorse Gallop”!!

-Jim.

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