This year the Sun Prairie Cup would not get me down. The past two years since we moved here to Wisconsin Sunny P is where I have been plagued with mechanicals. Both years have put my bike out of commission or ruined the race. So this year I was not going to have it. It worked. :) I successfully survived the races. Joey King had an early race ending in 7th in the Masters 55+ group. The weather was determined to change the course for the single speed race. Just before call ups the rain came with a light sustaining mist and soaked the ground. This caused a greasy cold start to the race. By the middle of the race sections proved to be unridable but started to dry out at the last lap and become tackle. Favorite moment was watching Joey King slide out on an off camber section and then slide under the tape down the hill. A fan did try to help him but he too slipped and fell down the hill. In the SS race I (Brandon Andrews) came in 14th, followed by Carl Bakker and Joey King in 18th & 19th receptively. Carl battling an injury didn't want to take too many more risks on the slippery course. Laura Andrews raced the Womens 3's getting 13th place on the slick course. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to race again in the 4's. I ended up 23rd in the group. Fun day in the mud, lots of cleaning. It was nice to have our tent with our new sides up so we were protected from the weather during the day. See the few photos below of Laura's race and a few of Brandon taken by good friend Anderson Bortoletto. - Brandon Andrews AMR Founder.
Post from Jonathan's Blog- Had a pretty good race last Saturday at the Rope Mill offroad duathlon. It was a bike-run-bike format. I've been feeling a little sluggish lately and am about 8 lbs over race-weight so I was surprised to see that I set PRs on the course. I frankly felt terrible on the run. I had a light breakfast of Kind bar and coconut oil. I usually do pretty well on this course and it is really Singlespeed friendly. Was shocked to see that Garmin reported the race as having 1500 feet of elevation. I had a quick start and was in 3rd for a long time on The Mill trail then finally some geared-fasties started to overtake me. My legs were on fire on the climbs. Dylan Reach passed me on the loop somewhere but I didn't remember seeing another one-gear bike :) He took the Singlespeed win. We placed 5th and 6th overall respectively. I suspect that I still may be recovering from the 70.3 I did on Sept. 27th and months of training. My transition was decent but bobbled with the right run shoe a bit. Explorer loop is normally easy for me but it was ghastly on Saturday! Turns out I beat my previous year's time by 2 minutes! Was glad to be done with the run and had a clunky transition back to bike and inexplicably took my gloves off for the bike?? Ran too long before mounting on bike. Was super-pleased to clean the uphill, rocky switchback heading in to Avalanche. On the 1st downhill switchback section, my front wheel washed out and I went down hard on my right knee and shoulder. I think this ended up costing me first place as I feel I could have caught Dylan on Avalanche at the end. Had a pretty good Bike 2 though I didn't feel fast at all yet ended up setting another PR. It's a tough day to set PRs and come in 2nd! Overall I'm pleased with my effort but not with the result. But at least I had fun and got to share it with Renee. Renee was running the race so it was nice to pass her on the run and give a high-five on the Explorer bridge. Post By Jonathan Hiott- To see more photos and read more about Jonathan's race and other adventures see his blog at http://bornonthetraintracks.blogspot.com/2015/10/rope-mill-duathlon.html Race images by Dashing Images, LLC http://www.dashingimages.com |
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