Ft. Custer, Waterford and Turning 50.

I find it fitting that this is the evening of my 50^th birthday and past due to update my race reports.  It is fitting because cycling keeps one young.  We have all gone for rides with 60 and 70 (some even 80) year old cyclists who are amazing in their fitness and ability.  Seems the older you get on a bike, the less geometrically you age.  My cycling all started about 5 years ago with you guys in Battle Creek and my life has been better ever since.  Thanks for letting me share in a sport that gives you eternal youth.

The Custer’s Revenge race was a little unnerving for me because I had ruined my Trek Top Fuel and was riding on a borrowed 29er hard tail.  I love the hard tail because all of the pedaling energy goes into the wheel and none gets absorbed by the shock.  Unfortunately, this also means that your core needs to be engaged the whole race.  I also felt as if I were riding very high and since it was the first time I was on the bike (ever) and it was a race, my bike handling skills suffered even more than usual.  I thought that the most important thing I could do would be to push it as hard as possible on the straight sections and take a little off in the technical sections.  It was a great day, a lot of TAR/WSI team members on the trail and I was able to steal a 9^th place finish.

Tonight was one of the Waterford  Hills Race series road races.  I am looking forward to pulling in the data from my new Garmin bike computer to see what actually happened, but what I felt was a nice 60 minute race on the 1.5 mile course with a small hill and fighting to stay in the first 10 or so places.  There were nearly 40 of us racing tonight and the wind was pretty strong from the south and the race temperature was about 90, ensuring that positioning in the group would be key for the race.  Not very eventful race, I think I finished in the top 20 or 25, but then some knuckle head cut in front of me at the end of the race…putting me on the turf after the race was over.  So much for an injury free race, but a very happy 50^th birthday—especially since my wife and daughter were there to cheer me on.

Happy trails my friends.  Life is better on our bikes.

Jack Miner.