I was a throttle twister before I was a pedal pusher. I’ve been riding motorized two wheelers since the age of four. Even though I don’t ride the KTM as often as I would like, and prefer my Epic to my two stroke, I never miss the AMA Supercross when it comes to the Lou. Sat night was the ’09 edition, and it didn’t disappoint. Reed and Stewart put on quite a show with Stewart taking more soil samples than the USGS. In the end, consistency prevailed with Reedy on the top step of the podium, much to my delight I might add. Sunday was the opening round of the MO State MTB Series. The previous day was not the preferred pre race menu with lots of time on my feet, greasy food, and Guinness, but I soldered on non the less. The weather was perfect and the large crowds of riders and stiff competition worked it magic, and helped my get the mojo going.
The start was fast, but not stupid fast and I was feeling good tucked in near the front on a long double track section. I knew going into the first set up single track I wanted to be no farther back than 5th. I jumped in around forth and went to work. One of the Mesa armada was holding me back a bit so after asking nicely and getting no response, made an aggressive move and slid into 3rd. On the first big downhill to the long gravel section on the back side I caught up with a Dogfisher. He scared the crap out of me when he went to clear a little rock section and his shoe came unclipped. We went on to work well together trying to chase down one Cameron Chambers on the flats. Cameron was going full gas and we could only make a slight dent in his lead.
On lap two, I was feeling good and following the Dogfish rider into the single track again. He was starting to fade a bit, and I caught a glimpse of Ploch coming on a switchback. Time to motor. At the top of the big downhill again I passed into 2nd and let her rip. I guess the Dogfish rider was fowling my line and wadded it up behind me because when I got to the double track he was no where to be found. So I began the chase of Chambers solo.
Cameron was in sight the entire 3rd lap, but I couldn’t pull it back and finished about 45 seconds back. A good start to the season for sure. Looks like the miles of tempo have paid off. Its time to start tweaking the motor and working on the anaerobic engine.
