I saw this race on the calendar and thought it sounded like something to check out. KY races have a SS class and I have been wanting to ride the Surly again so it sounded like a good idea. I had never been to Waverly before and didn’t really know what to expect. I really liked the trail and it had a lot more climbing then I had expected. If I knew that before hand, I might have raced a different class, but I am glad that I took it. I really wished I had more time on that bike before the race, it would have been much better.
All of cat 2 and SS racers start at the same time and we headed up this crazy rode climb. I am not a favor of starting by going up a silly steep road climb. I do much better when I can get warmed up in the woods. I don’t know where I was in the line when we hit the woods, but it was in front of more riders then I expected. I settled down and worked in to a good groove as much as I could. I was passing some people and getting passed by others. After hitting a few of the good climbs I was dreading the fact that we were riding 3 laps. It was said that the trail was about 8 miles long, so 3 laps would be close to 24 miles. I was climbing good, but I was feeling it. There was one hill that was really hard and there were several that were walking it. I know I ended up walking it all three laps.
There was a really cool log crossing that was fun to ride. I was not expecting it the first lap and it almost got me. There were a few log crossings on the trail and even one tree that you had to stop to walk under. I don’t know how my time was over all, but I finished 4th in the SS class just because I was there. It seemed like I didn’t do too bad over all in Cat 2, but I won’t know for sure until some results are posted. I have to see how the rest of the races line up with my schedule and give it another try. It was good to see some old faces, some new faces and put some faces to names. Good times!
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