From all of us here in Casper who made it to one or all of the races that Laramie hosted this year, we would like to say THANK YOU. Thank you to every single person who had anything to do with hosting the Laramie Mountain Bike Series. The Tuesday night race series is a total blast and it is always worth the 2.5 hour drive (one way) to get to a couple of them each year. Thank you for the cheers, the shwagg, amazing courses, variety in the courses, quick results and friendliness that you have given all of us. We truly appreciate all the hard work you put into it.
And now for the race from last night.
I must say that I am mighty proud of the racing that was thrown together from the Casper guys who raced last night. Two from Casper placed in the top 3 overall in expert while the rest of the speedy bunch tore up the expert and sport class. As always, the race started at a lightning fast pace that was just too much for me to hang on too. The technical terrain of the area is still a bit challenging and it was pretty disapointing to see Evan (from Laramie) and Steve (from Fort Collins) steadily gap me and the rest of the group. After about 5 minutes, I looked back to see that nobody was close to me and I thought that this race would be like ALL the rest of them. I usually always ride alone... I always tell my brother that I need to stop being the slowest fast guy and ride with the group of guys ahead of me. So I settled in and for another 10 minutes I rode solo until I came up on Even having trouble with his first flat.
After just 30 seconds or so, I was off again minus my extra tube. At the bottom of a long decent, two U of WY riders passed me while another guy was riding my wheel. The four of us rode the really flat and fast two-track until the flat turned to a little incline. Not knowing what was ahead, I attacked. For the next 5 minutes I rode at 174 bpm, making a huge gap on those three guys. So I rested for a couple minutes letting the heart get back down in the upper 150's and low 160's. Its a good thing I did, because it was just enough time to rest before the hill climb that they call DEATH CROTCH! This was a very long, very technical single track climb that seemed to be longer than any hill climb I've ever done before. For what seemed to be 20 minutes, I lugged along in the granny gear spinning as fast as my legs could go. For me, the high cadence and easy gear really keeps my legs fresh versus struggling to mash a harder gear and wearing you down.
Anyway, Evan caught up to me and passed at the top of Death Crotch and I was sure that I had third place in the bag. That was until Evan was once again on the side of the trail fixing his second flat tire of the race. After I passed him, I really layed it on and hammered the final 10 minutes of the race. It was mostly pretty fast and short ups and downs the rest of the way to the finish line where I came in a terrible 5 minutes behind Steve. I'll get him next year!
Until then, all of us here in Casper will be enjoying some Fat Fish Races hosted by the team and a couple of long distance events too. Again, Thank you to all of you who were part of hosting the Laramie Bike Series. You ROCK!!!
YEAH, so I'm not a photographer. Here are the best two that I could come up with from the race last night. Neil above and Mike below. 
Anyone ready for the next Fat Fish Racing competitive ride??? I hope so. Next one will be within the next two weeks, so stay tuned for the location and date.
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