2012 – 1,519 miles, 2 road races and the first WORS race: DONE.

Mountain bike racing is hard.  Iola was hard, and not fun.  I have done many rides and races that were really hard, but afterward I always felt good – a sense of accomplishment.  Iola was just hard.  When it was over, I was glad to be done.  My crappiest time ever, I probably wouldn’t even have made the Citizen podium.  Even worse, it was my debut in “Singlespeed Open” (Comp).  I’ve really been digging riding on the road for the past year, and I was considering skipping Iola and driving to LaCrosse for the Omnium.  Probably should have gone with that plan.  I’ve run a 32:16 for the past 3 years at Iola, same this year.  With all the peanut butter mud, that was a bad plan, but I got to the race too late to change it.  Mentally, I was never in this one.  I hadn’t realized how much I’ve been spinning a smaller gear this off-season and not working on power.  I’m really stoked to race ToAD this year, and Iola really didn’t help fire me up for WORS.  I race the Whitnall Spring Classic Crit in April and did the Masters 4/5 and Masters 3/4 back to back.  It was hard, but fun.  When I finished, I was stoked and looking forward to doing another road race.  Bump and Jump was way harder. 

The 69er is sitting in my garage, still packed with mud.  I can’t even get motivated to clean it.

 Next up – the Bone Ride.