The Almost That Was

This is almost becoming routine.  Almost.  Sunday morning was a get up early and go race kind of day for our small band of motoring misfits.  A-Train was to start at 10am while Diesel wasn't to go off until 1pm.  This ended up working out 'Almost' well as they each needed some one for bottle hand offs as the pit crew was thin...as in they had to barrow groupies from Einstein Racing's own Jon Dub9.  So the Motor Club plan was to race, hand off bottles, race, hand off more bottles and race some more.  Fairly easy day right?  Almost.

The 6th stop of the USAC tour was Bloomer Park.  The  XC course was a wee bit different than in past years though.  Whatever was missing from previous years was replaced by pure singe track.  Couldn't ask for a better race course for our boys.  They have decent power on the flats.  They constantly work on their climbing thresholds.  But you ask them to fit their 650mm wide handlebars through a course stuffed with only 500mm wide openings and they'd tell you that's what they are best at.  Okay, so that is exaggerating a bit but you get the point.  The tighter the trees and the sharper the corners the better they ride.

So A-Train dug in during his race and with a little help (drafts) here and there on the short two track sections he managed to claw his way up from P7 going into the woods to P3 at the finish line.  He was only 8 seconds out from P2 and less than 80 seconds out from the win.  We caught up with him after for a few words.  "Finally!  No really, finally.  After all the ups and downs this year it was nice to grab a spot on the box.  I honestly was just hoping to squeak into the P5 so to exceed that makes me hopeful for the coming races in August.  Not saying it's a given it will happen again but it's a good confidence booster and I needed one."  This finish may land A-Train in the top 10 for the overall series standings.

Diesel was using Bloomer for a tune up race.  He has his sights set on a big finish this coming weekend so he went into the Bloomer XC without a rest day.  It would be his 4th day in a row riding hard and the only goal he had was to grab a top 5 finish.  His first lap went very well as he went into the woods 3rd wheel.  When he came out of the woods to start lap 2 he was in P1 with a good size margin on the field.  A-train was up at the awards for his class at this time as was Dub9 so Dub's wife Danielle let Skylar (the daughter of a friend of the Motor Club) hand off Diesel's bottle.  So he came rocketing through the exchange chute and he and Skylar 'Almost' made a good bottle exchange.  As the bottle was heading to mother earth instead of Diesel's bottle cage, Diesel locked his brakes up a little to hard and sent himself over the handlebars.  He quickly got up, grabbed the bottle and took off before the rest of the field made it out of the woods.

But the miles from the past few days would catch up with him.  He also said he picked the wrong rear tire for the day and wished his Ralph was on the back instead of the SB8.  Still, after all that drama he managed a solid P4 finish which means another trip to the podium.  That makes him 4 for 4 for trips to the podium in the USAC series as he retains his 2nd place in the overall standings.

Next up, the Tree Farm Relay.  Last year the A-Train and the Diesel convinced two friends from two other teams to fly the MOTOR flag but this year it will be a little different.  With help from our Twin Six Sponsor, look for our boys to be wearing a different Twin Six jersey as to unite 4 chosen riders under a single flag for a single purpose.  And if all goes well, you won't see the word 'Almost' in the next race review.

The climb to the bottom

"The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut." (free Twin Six sticker if you can name that movie without going to Google)

That about sums up the two weeks leading into the annual Stony Creek Marathon, ironically renamed the Heat Miser due to the same conditions last year.  Why is this race called a marathon?  Because it's about twice as long as a normal XC race.  The Diesel was in for 40 miles of pain and suffering while the A-Train was suckered into renewing his USAC licence this year meaning he'd have to do 50 miles.

The pair met up around 08:00 to set up camp and figure out how they were going to survive the day ahead.  Not long after,  Motor Club groupie/Einstein Racer Dub9 and his wife showed up and set up at base camp.  New guy, Derek from WSJ Racing, hung out with the Triple Twin Sixers before the start of the race for some laughs and race advise.  The race was to start at 10:00 and temps were already well into the 80's at 08:00.

To make a long story short, the day sucked for everyone who didn't get first place in their respected classes.  Hell, even half the people who won their class wondered if it was worth the effort against the searing heat.  The indexes were over 100 and in Michigan that's hot.  The Motor Club applauds everyone who stuck it out and finished the race as well as the people who gave their all but had to eventually bow down to the dreaded DNF.

Downhillin' Diesel getting a break from the heat.  Great job on your Podium 3rd place!  

No podium for the A-Train but it was a big mental win in a hard fought season of hitting the restart button.

And of course big props to our fellow foes Brad Lako and William Ott for podium finishes.  These two guys continue to be great measuring sticks for all of us.  And also to John Osgood, Jon Wlodarczak, David Moore Jr and Coach Kevin for sticking it out and not giving in to the dreaded DNF.  

Next stop on the USAC Tailwind Tour, Bloomer XC on July 22nd.