Changing of the Guard

Two week ago Brian and Aryn decided for sure they would be returning to Holt Michigan for the 2nd Annual Burchfield Time Trial.  So Aryn, being the good team manager he is, signed them both up at once to make sure the two would start in line.  For those who don't know about Time Trialing, one rider goes off the start every 30 seconds and you race against the clock.  You may not see another rider the entire race . . . some times that's good and some times it's bad.  Anyway, Aryn being as slick as he is signed up Brian to start in front of him.  He had his reasons but mostly because the course was front loaded with very technical singletrack and he wanted to make sure Diesel had a clear path.  A-Train knew it was possible that Diesel would go through that section faster so there was no sense in slowing him down.

Later in the day Aryn checked the on-line reg to see who else was racing and found out two things: 1 - Brian was going to be the fourth rider going off the line and he would be the fifth.  2 - The Motor Club's good friend Jon Dub9 would be starting right behind Aryn at P6.....and a half an hour after that, Dub9 had agreed to join forces with the MOTOR Club again this year to try and pull off what would be a difficult task....sweep the podium in the Men's A Class.

Hell Yeah!  (Dub9 had been known to relay with the Motor Club and also pal around with them at races (Mostly to mooch their shade))

Let's just skip to the day of the race shall we?  Forget the run around and go right to the starting line.  There would be 27 racers total signed up.

P1 - Remke Van Dame - local Strava KOM
P2 - Shaun Good - local trail coordinator and known speedster
P3 - Steve Rodgers - local ST killer who finished 2nd to A-Train last year by less than 30 seconds

As you can see P1 - P3 was stacked with knowledge and speed.

P4 -Diesel - flying under the radar after last year's 10th place finish
P5 - A-Train - big target on his back from last year's win
P6 - Dub9 - local hero who came to the Darkside (MOTOR Club)

21 more racers lined up after these 6.  Like any race you never know who may show up but the chatter around the paddock was that one of the first 6 would most likely walk away with the win.

Remke was fired off at 10:00am and every 30 seconds after that another rider was climbing up into the woods.  Dub9 told the Motor Crew that the winning time range would be from 42-45 minutes.  That's a full 10 minutes faster than the time A-Train won with last year.  There were some course changes but it was known that all the riders had upped their games for this year's battle.

The front of the course was loaded with roots and tight turns.  Roughly four miles of brake, accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake accelerate all the while tackling roots strewn out in every direction across the trail.  After that it opened up to a still somewhat new field section that was bumpy and soft.  Next was some flowing ST before you were dumped back out to a field again.  Last, some flowing ST with some trick navigation around some stunts and also a few rock gardens before the sprint down to the finish chute.

To keep it short so we can get to pictures, here is the order the first five across the finish line:

1 - Diesel
2 - Steve
3 - A-Train
4 - Dub9
5 - Remke

Diesel laid some serious rubber from the start and passed all three riders who started in front of them.  Dub9 and A-Train had passed 2 of the three who started in front of them but never caught a visual of Diesel.  The three waited patiently for the final results as Steve R had put together a solid ride and was close to grabbing one of the top 3 podium spots as well.

Final results were listed:

Diesel walked away with 1st place in the Men's A and also another trophy for the fastest time of the day.
Dub9 went home happy with this second place but did try and put the fastest time trophy in his car.
A-Train was happy to caboose the train and had no problem being beat by his own teammates.

Was nice to see some people we haven't talked to since last year's race and also make some new friends.  Last, it was great to see so many people raise the level of competition from last year.  Shaun, don't do so much work next year the day before the race....lol.  Remke, we'll miss having you at the battle next year but gook luck in Australia.  Steve R, man you kicked some serious butt.  I have a hard time thinking you will never stand on the top box at this race.  Great job out there!

Solid effort to our T6 MOTOR Clubbers.  That makes two years straight a MOTOR jersey has topped the podium at this race.  Looking forward to returning to a great race run well by a group of swell people.  Thanks for having us out again MMMBA!

 . . .and thanks to Steve and Remke for the kind words!  Shows class.