Down-poor

After the past few weekends it was a nice change of pace to race close to home. This past weekend was the Mid Atlantic Cup at the famous Whitetail resort in Mercersburg, Pa. Whitetail is where many riders in the Baltimore, DC metro area learned to ride. They closed their doors to mountain biking about 6 years ago when an investment company looking to restructure purchased them. So when the opportunity to ride the mountain came around, we all jumped. Friday was the first day of practice with Saturday and Sunday both having separate races the overall winner would have the best combined time.

All right are we all on the same page now?

Friday. Marvelous and I head out to get there early and practice. We arrive, register and suit up. In the parking lot we are delighted to see old friends Jason and Jason. We all ride the lift up together and excitement sets in as we begin to reminisce of years before.
The Saturday course was a fast pump course with a few manmade berms to liven things up. It descended onto the access road, shot back into the woods and cut its way through a valley with plenty of off camber sections. Now these trails had just been cut and in some cases rejuvenated from years past by the trail crew. We even pitched in a month or so back helping them get a good clean line from top to bottom. After two practice runs we begin to pick the pace up and things are looking good. The soft loamy soil is offering a lot of traction when the roots are not uncovered. As we make our way through the valley section into the off camber I pump the front end down into a rutted pocket. The front wheel washes out and my right knee gets to sort out the details of impact. I roll to the side as to not be run over by fellow riders and survey the damage. I look down at my knee and can already see the top of the kneecap showing through. “Ouch” isn't the best word to describe the pain but it is the first word that comes to mind. I try to stand to ensure that the whole kit is still working, which it is. It is merely superficial. I hobble out too the ski slope with one of the Jasons kindly getting some assistance for me. A four-wheeler trip later and I am looking for the First Aid building.

I can walk, sort of.

I decide to sit out the rest of the day. I get to watch everyone else ride. When Saturday rolls around I decide to try and ride just to get my race in. I get dressed and take a few runs just to see what on me, is still working. I cannot pedal. The upward stroke of the pedal causes my knee to flex too much and open the wound, getting back to the “Ouch” part of the story. I run my race and crash three times and I really didn’t pedal too much.
I finish middle of the pack.

Sunday morning I decide to sleep in and get to the mountain a little later. Good decision.
The amount of water that fell from the sky on Sunday was biblical. I had no idea there was that much water in the atmosphere, all of it fell. All of it. There will not be any more rain in the world for a few weeks; it was all used up on Sunday. Needless to say, I am not racing in this mess. Marvelous is practicing with Will and they are soaked to the bone. Visibility on the trail is poor due to goggles fogging up. When the race finally goes off the rain starts to slow.

We are now waiting for the race results which will end up taking three to four hours to compute on the old Amiga or whatever digital abacus they decided to use. The race times looked screwed up and inaccurate. Marvelous is pissed, he got the short end of the stick on his time, he leaves with the race promoter knowing exactly how he felt. Will gets third in the race and third overall, winning quite a few prizes. Its great to see his hard work pay off!

So to recap: We all spent 100 bucks, I saw my kneecap, Marvelous got robbed, Will won bike gloves that are extra small and the planet is out of rain.

How was your weekend?