Virginia Mountain Bike Super Series #3!!

I have little doubt that many of the participants didn’t realize they were participating in the new Virginia Mountain Bike Super Series, but alas you were.  No longer contained to just Hilbert, this series is bound to take off.  I for one am looking forward to it as Mark hosts a good grassroots type race that offers a lot of bang for the buck. I enjoy the laid back atmosphere of the Run Ride Race events.

The 3^rd race of the series was held at the ever familiar Camp Hilbert.  Rooty, tight singletrack with short steep climbs is what is always on tap at Hilbert.  I continue my love/hate relationship with these trails.  The direction was counter-clockwise which features a sweet, fast and swoopy downhill about halfway through the lap.  I must say that I looked forward to riding this section of trail on each lap.

I was a bit skeptical when heading out to the venue as I drove through a downpour which would not have been fun to race in.  Luckily we got lucky and this storm never made it to Hilbert and we were fortunate to have relatively moderate temperatures without the extreme humidity we have been experiencing.  I’m glad I didn’t turn around and head back home as was my initial thought; I managed to lay down some of my best laps ever recorded at Hilbert in a direction that is the more difficult.  It was nice to return to the top step of the podium and I give thanks to Michael Harlow at Endorphin Fitness for keeping my training on track this season.  It has really made a difference.  I also returned to the Stijl for this race after a quick tune up by Hinmaton last week, thanks for helping me out.  I was worried of some slick roots after the rain we had gotten Friday night so ran a Rocket Ron on front with my (now standard) Racing Ralph on the rear.  This turned out to be a great tire combination, man I like those Rocket Ron’s on the front.

We had a great team turnout with multiple podiums.  I will try to list them below and you can find the full results here:

Sport Women

Sonya Richeson 1^st

Expert Vet Men

Jeff Plassman 3^rd
Tom Richeson 5^th

Sport Men (Young)

Matt Juaneza 2^nd

Eric Bleecher 6^th

Sport Vet Men

Jim Fisher 1^st

Enduro Men

David Reid 1^st

Mike King 5^th

Congrats to all!!

Hilbert #1

Hilbert is always an interesting race, and this past weekends event was no exception.  One thing that is always nice is to see all the Design Physics jerseys.  Seemed like everywhere I turned I ran into them, both before and during the race.  I won't even try to list all the members of the team that attended as I'm sure I would miss many of you.  Several podium spots were filled by DP racers which is always a nice bonus.

My race was alright, finishing second on a tough race day.  My stomach started to turn sour after 3 hours and no doubt my lap times dropped drastically at that point.  I think I need to dial in my nutrition a bit more before Cohutta at the end of the month.  The heavy pollen left me coughing for much of the later laps as well, not sure my body is used to the heat this early in the season either.

My first lap was quite the adventure.  My seat moved quite a bit on my seatpost about half-way through the lap. I didn't want to stop to fix it mid lap hoping there would be a team mate close by in the pit area. Fortunately there was, and Jim quickly lended me the tool I needed to tighten my saddle.  Unfortunately, I also wrecked on some pine needles nearing the end of that lap resulting in a bent rear derailleur which I hadn't realized till after I fixed my saddle.  I could only get to half of the rear cassette, so I laid the Giant down for the race and picked up my back up bike.  Luckily I had taken Friday off from work and built up the old Stijl with my new Industry Nine wheels and Schwalbe Racing Ralphs.  Turns out the Racing Ralph were actually a better tire choice for the trail conditions and I managed to remain upright for the remainder of the day.  Huge thanks to Jason and Paul for giving me bottles through the pit area all day.  After my first lap, I only set my foot down once thanks to their help.

Also wanted to thank RunRideRace for putting on another great event.  Not sure who added all those extra roots at Hilbert over the winter.

Alright, enough of my ramblings how about some pictures from the event.  As you can see, DP was everywhere!!

Erik Bleecher, Jeff Farmer, Matt Juaneza, Jeff Plassman, Paul Leeger, Joe Fish

Kate Fisher

Shannon Bush

Erik Bleecher, Jason Broussard, Jeff Plassman, Jeff Farmer

Byron Gonzalez taking 3rd

Joe Fish taking 2nd

We all feel you Jeff

Tom Richeson

David Reid