The skiing continues to go in fits and starts up in Vermont, with brief windows of sweet turns followed by spells of warm weather. Oh well. At least there was a mountain bike race this weekend to mix things up. Yup, that's right: January, snow, Vermont, bike racing in the woods=awesome.
Big thanks to the folks at Onion River Sports for putting the race on. Just as a disclaimer, riding is not normally allowed in Hubbard Park, but last Sunday there was an exception granted. About 35 intrepid mountain bikers decided to test their luck in the ice and snow.
I wasn't too sure how things were going to work out. After all, riding the trainer once in a while hardly counts as training, and skiing is not biking. Plus, when I stepped out on my porch Sunday morning I pretty much ate it right off the bat, it was a sheet of ice out there. So, this should be fun eh. Turns out it was, and more. Every race should be that much fun. In actuality the riding was really good. With Stan's rims and Conti tires I was able to run about 12 psi in my tires, and the traction was great. Which was actually kind of a problem. See, that meant we could ride hard, which meant a lot of suffering. It's been a few months since I've done that.
After the first climb there were two of us off the front, and that's pretty much how things went. We traded pulls, put in a little dig here or there, and stayed together to the line. That sprint HURT. I led it out, which was fine, and started a ways from the line. Turns out I had a little extra kick and got the win. Hey, I'll take it!
Really though, the race was about getting the local mountain bike community together for a great time, and raising some money for VMBA. Both those things were certainly accomplished. Check out Onion River Sports on Facebook for awesome photos of the race.
And finally, a couple of shots of skiing from up high in the Greens on Saturday. The cover was marginal, but we've been saying that for a while, and being out in the woods always beats sitting on the couch if you ask me.
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