Brown County hates me

I guess it's understandable. I'm a pretty detestable guy.

Start of the race was near the entrance of the park in the flat grassy area where the trail dumps out, sort of near the pool. Laps did not come through the start finish area.

So we start out in the grass area hang a sharp right onto the pavement and immediately begin the really steep but pretty short climb which then flattens out and then kicked back up for a longer climb on the pavement towards the tower where we took a right at the top of onto the singletrack. About 50 yards into the woods was the connector and feedzone. It's all really fast through there and the first climb came after about a mile of singletrack, actually probably not that far but the first climb was pretty mellow, nothing i needed to stand up for. then we cruise along for a while on rolling fast trail down to an area were there is traffic going both directions at pretty much the bottom this area is normally wet, but not this weekend. Next we start the longest climb of the day, which is also not that steep but does seem to go on forever. We ride around on the ridge for a few miles and then go back down to the bottom, hang a left and go out on the double track we were riding on a few minutes before then up a little bit to some more fast stuff rolling along till we get to the split for lap or finish. Hang left for the laps and bare straight on for the finish. The lap trail takes back along on a trail near the road that then has a small up to the feed zone. The finish is the trail that goes fast down right behind the bathrooms on top of the hill all the way down and dumps you out in the area we started in.

Okay, now that you have that all straightened out.

Before the race started I was hoping everyone would chill on the first steep paved climb and new things would split up on the second longer climb.

We line up and it looks like a pretty good showing. I'd guess at least 20 in my class but I'm not sure since I didn't look around too much. We take off, make the sharp right onto the road and start the first steep climb. I get up front immediately with 2 or 3 others and gear down. Since I'm hanging on a wheel and noone else is coming around me I figure I'm going fast enough. At the top my legs are feeling it a bit. I noticed the other two in front of me didn't stand for the hill but I did. At the top noone immediately took off or attacked so that's good cause it would have been a pain in the ass. Things speed up and I get behind a kid that looked like he was taller than me and held onto his wheel the rest of the way up. On the last 50 yards are so before singletrack the guy in front attacked and got a gap. I was fine with that and I guess the kid in front of me didn't want to do anything about it either. I was worried someone else might try to come around me but noone did so I go in the woods third. Which I was fine with. I heard that our class had split up into 3 groups by that point but I didn't look back to see any.

Once on the singletrack I noticed that I wasn't having trouble keeping up in the fast stuff. I did feel like if the two guys in front of me were going to get away it would be in some of the climbing stuff. We stay together for a while and. Some short kid up front, then the tall skinny guy in front of me and there were probably 4 riders or so behind me. We had a gap on the rest of the group. I'm not sure how big or small though.

After about 15 minutes the trail opens up for about 30 yards on a bit of an up. #2 attacks and goes around #1. #1 responds to the acceleration and someone comes around me to get in the gap that opened up from the acceleration. The get about a 5 second gap on me and the rest of the group which is where it stayed until we are in the bottom section just getting ready to start the longest climb. On one of the last few turns I notice my rear tire feels squirrely so I ask the guy behind me if it looks flat, he said it looked a little low. so I stop as probably 3 riders come around, and put some air in, the tire didn't seal though because I didn't have enough sealant left in my tire. which is sucky cause the night before I knew I needed to put some stans in my tire but was feeling too lazy to deal with it.

Since the tire wouldn't seal, I have to take it off to put a tube in. Once I get the tube in I realize my CO2 is out and by this time everyone in my class has come around although I was surprised at what a big gap we had on the rest of the field. So I walk about half a mile back to a little feed/assistance area and borrow a pump. Then I cruise around the rest of the course and finish about 30 minutes or more after everyone else.

Last year when I raced at brown county I had some tire deflating issues too. That's why Brown county hates me, but I still love it. Story of my life