The Stagg Creek Shakedown

Ever since the lost the "flats" at Poor Farm, the trail conditions have been on the decline. The trails future looked bleak to say the least. But last Sunday the hope returned in the form of the Stagg Creek Shakedown presented by Richmond Velo Sport. The turnout was good with at least a hundred riders ready to suffer in hot hot heat. Ed Jones a.k.a Cycles Ed, a long time figure in the Ashland cycling scene, created one tough course. It was satanic to say the least, we went up all the wrong hills.  Easily the hardest cross country course in the central Virginia. This would be my first race of year that was shorter than 20 miles.  I had no clue if my ability to sustain high intensity power was there. What a better way to find out than on my home course. At the starting line I knew right away who the competition would be. Ethan Lindbloom, a guy who has been really good at this for a long time and Kevin Horvath,  who is always strong in the single speed class. Everyone else I didn't have a clue how strong they'd be. Right out of the gate Ethan took charge, leading into the singletrack, with Kevin, Sean Yeager and George Lowe with me right behind him. Before the first climb Ethan had already put 20 seconds into everyone. I got past George   on a climb he got off and walked while I rode it. Then I ran past Kevin on the climb right after the 180 degree turn on gravel and powered past Sean on the last little gravel pitch of that climb. After passing those guys I couldn't see Ethan and figured he was long gone. Then on a technical climb right after this sketchy descent, I saw Ethan grinding up the climb. We did some yo-yoing for a while, I attacked on this doubletrack climb and got a gap. It was coming apparent that I was climbing much stronger than Ethan and he knew it. So he made up the gaps on the descents. Dude was tearing up the downhills no doubt. My strong efforts were to no avail. Then on this sketchy long pile I endoed and got my brake cables all tangled up. Ethan went by me while I fixed that and I never came close again. I then rode pretty conservative to make sure to seal second place. On the second lap I could see Kevin coming on strong in the flats but once the trails kicked up again he was gone. I came in 2nd at 1:33 less than a minute behind Ethan.  Overall pretty happy with that result, finishing that close to a guy like Ethan gives me confidence  that I can hang with some of the best around. You can always ask the what if question but does it really matter? No doubt in mind I had enough gas in the tank for one more strong attack but it didn't happen. I crashed like always, so it is what it is. Although the DP squad didn't have a good showing, we still put forth strong results. Byron won Beginner men and Matt sorta of got third place in Sport Men under 35 but after going off course I guess he was DQ'ed? Also Mason got second in Beginner Juniors. Next year the DP squad needs to be out in full force for this one. Results

Oh for all you gear ratio nerds I ran a 36x20, felt perfect.

Check out this video made by Dan Gibson of DBGProductions