Local racing

It's great to be able to jump in the car and drive off to some of the bigger events. With the larger number of racers, festive atmosphere and the getting out of town with friends thing, it's what keeps me going out there. But every now and then, it's fun to just be able to drive 30 minutes to a race and do the local thing. I've now done 2 weekends of the almost no travel and it hasn't sucked. The Freddie Fu team in Pittsburgh put on a good race yesterday. Too bad more riders didn't come out, but the weather had it's say on the day. Cold, like we experienced last week is one thing. Cold and wet is another. I would've tried a second race but I'm only able to deal with a wet chamois for so long. The course was a very good one and offered a lot of options for riders on the course. It was interesting to see how riders chose different lines and got up the little run-ups. The ride of the day had to be from Mike Mihalik. After crashing and getting swarmed by the 3 Speedgoat riders in the race, he'd fallen back to 6th place on the day. Then after a couple laps, he made the move of the day and burst up on the extreme inside of the first run-up and gapped Andy Gorski and Gerry Pflug. It wasn't just the small gap that yawned a bit but still allowed the others to get back on. It went to 3 or 4 seconds almost immediately and by the time he came back around the tennis courts a minute and a bit later, it was over 10 seconds. Something lit a fire under his ass and he took off. A few laps later, former MAC Masters champ Joe Ruggery came into his sights. On the lap where Mike caught him, Joe forced him to get off his bike the only time up the run-up for the day, but that just wasn't enough. The cold rain seemed to be getting to everyone except Mike. He came back to even closing to inside a minute behind long time leader Steve Cummings but he didn't quite have enough time. Overall, the venue was actually one of the better courses I'd been on this year. It would be a good one even with a pack of 40 or more riders. Maybe next year this will be where states are located and the idea has been floated. On top of the course being a good one for the riders, it was also a very good one for the spectators as you can view almost the entire course from 2 points. There are also a couple good points for being right at the tape and heckling. It was fun egging the riders on to attempt riding up the muddy climb and then the sharp off camber turns only a few yards away made it a really good spectator course. If we can get the Seton Hill cross race back next year, it could certainly make for a very good weekend. Time to start making those plans for next year.