Dirt Derby - WVMBA Finals

The WVMBA Champs were this past weekend. I spent the day before at the Comfort Music Festival which was a Cancer benefit concert. The hospital asked us to set up the tent there and have some promo material. Luckily it was a bit of a lower key concert that didn't get stupid loud. The music was mainly bluegrass (hey, it is West 'by God' Virginia here). That is pretty much a style where you actually have to be able to play unlike most rock acts which rely on volume over talent. On top of that, there's nothing like having some pretty hippie chicks dancing barefoot up near the stage to help divert my mind from all the other pressures of the world. We finished the night up with some sushi and bubble tea at Hibachi in Morgantown then watched 'Grizzly man' back at Chris' house. This was a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who was a bear enthusiast who went a bit over the edge. He was to grizzly bears what Steve Irwin was to crocodiles. They both pretty much pushed things a bit and in the end which some would call tragic though many call it inevitable, learned that while other species of animals might be interesting to study and look at, piss them off and they won't hesitate to kill you. I think that's pretty much the lesson here. What else can you really get from either of their stories. It's not likely that humans and grizzly bears are ever going to sit down and play a game of cards together so it might be best to observe them from a distance.

Anyway, back to the WVMBA champs. I got an ok start, but the long road section thru the town of Barboursville makes it tough on the single speeders. Once on to the trail, I was doing alot of barking at riders to give me the line. I even prompted a few of the expert riders that I'd caught to pass the riders they were sitting behind. The first section of the course was pretty much a BMX like course. Lots of quick twists and turns, some fast stretches but no big climbs. I was kicking myself for not using the 18 instead of the 20 tooth cog on the back. I really have to have more confidence in the fact I can push the bigger gears. Having even a 19 could have trimmed a couple minutes off my time, especially as there was several fire roads on the course and even noodling along I would've gone a fair amount faster. I road a fairly clean race though I did chicken out on doing the steps where Joey Riddle crashed hard last year and broke some ribs, arm, collarbone and maybe a bit of pride too. I've had a crash like that before so I felt his pain and did not want any of it directly. It only cost me a couple seconds but I was back on and catching some riders so I felt good about my day. I let one rider past a bit more than a mile from the finish and I followed him in. He was doing the descents fairly smooth and I didn't feel like fighting for position heading into the finish. We were closing to another rider just as we came down the descent for the finish. One thing I will say about the single speed is, if you are finishing the race on a hill, it really demoralizes the other riders when they see you stomping past them. It's basically the only option for us. Go hard because we can't down-shift. It wasn't quite enough though and I finished just 6 seconds out of 4th. If I'd used the 19 or even the 18, it could've been 3rd or possibly even 2nd. Even with that, I'd trimmed 8 minutes of last years time so I was quite happy. Now I just have to make the decision on whether to do the start of the PA cross series or the Big Bear Lake Ultra next week. On one hand, it's the start of the cross season. On the other, Big Bear would be a good effort, one that I need to do well in the Mountain State Classic. My mind might be made up by the fact that Big Bear Lake is only 1.5 hours away versus 4.5 hours. 6 less hours in the car might not be a bad thing. My brain hurts now trying to make a choice.