The Dirty Dawg 2012

Most of the DP stayed local and did Junkerman's race at Camp Hilbert on Saturday. With work on Saturday I opted to travel out to Blacksburg and race the Dirty Dawg. A few things had me worried about the race, one that I had to race expert men on my Singlespeed and two I had no idea what to expect about the course. The location for the course is at Mountain Lake (Yes, where the filmed Dirty Dancing!) high up on a mountain, right on the West Virginia border. The expert men field was pretty big with 35 riders. With such a big field I knew the start was going to critical. We started on a gravel road and sprinted through the field with the barn and timing table. I go outside on the first turn and lose about 12 positions and head into the singletrack about 30th. The first bit of singletrack is a ripping downhill but not to ripping when you're behind half the field. Half way down I pass Gordon Wadsworth who has already flatted a mile into the race. Finally we hit hill and all of the geared riders shift into granny gear, I just jump off and run by 5 or 6 riders, almost taking out Laura Hamm in the process. Sorry! After  traffic thinned out and I was able to catch others riders on the fireroad climbs. Also for a first time I was making up time on the downhills (Thanks for the schooling Plassman). Finally I reached the intersection of the extra expert loop and the regular course. Now this is where things get weird, expert riders have to do the loop once but can choose which lap they complete it on. I opted to get it out of the way on the first lap. It started with a fairly long steep gravel climb after this things got hairy. After turning off the gravel load there was fast descent with loose shale rock gardens. Then there was steep rocky doubletrack climb that I walked good share off. Finally we hit the last trail Moonstomper. The trail was rocky, really rocky. Some of the nastiest stuff I've ever ridden. The rocks were numerous, slick and jagged. Also it didn't help that somebody in front of me keep dabbing causing me to lose a bit of my flow every 200ft. Then the last bit of trail shot straight down and was rocky as hell. I just held on and tired not to die. I finally came to one section with a big drop with sketchy entrance, that I just said "Nope that's it, there is my limit." Still an awesome bit of trail. Finally I rejoined the list bit of the regular loop. For my next two laps I just stay on top of it and rode hard. I didn't see anymore expert riders for my last two laps. I came into the finish expecting about 20th or so. Then I looked over at the board and what.... I got 10th. Kirby the promoter came over said "good job dude 10th overall 3rd single". All I could think "are you serious man!?" My best result of the year, hopefully this will carry over to next weekend for the Chimney Chase at Walnut Creek. Everybody should check out the trails at Mountain Lake and Kirby's other race at Pandapas Pond in october, right up the road. Hope to see everyone next weekend!

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