Hilbert I

I bowed out of the Enduro Category at Camp Hilbert this year. Decided I’d see how fast I was and race the SS category instead. As it turns out, it’s pretty hard to redline for 18 miles.

There was some good carnage at the start. Somebody clipped a wheel and went over the bars, which is not a good way to start a race. I led out in 2^nd behind GWad. He would disappear after about 2 miles and never be seen again. So the fight was on for 2^nd. I had a guy with the loudest creaking EBB on earth chasing me for all of the first two laps. He’d mash the hills and get right on my arse, then I’d get separation in the twisties when he was recovering. It was a bit of a mind-game. I tried to yield the trail to him after 1 lap, but he didn’t want it, so I led out for lap 2 in 2^nd place and it was much of the same for the duration of the next 6 miles.

Start of lap 3 I picked up the pace a bit and got some separation on the creaker. However, in some of the early turns I started noticing a good bit of traffic behind me, and I got nervous. Maybe ½ way through, I was overtaken by another singlespeeder, and another settled in right behind me. Ugh. This is typically the time where K29er starts falling apart, yielding trail, veering off into the woods and collapsing like a whooped puppy. Fortunately, the guy that passed wasn’t throwing down too badly, and I was able to dig down and hold his wheel, quietly contemplating how I was gonna get my spot back.

We rolled that way in a tight 2-3-4 pack until the turn to the dam loop, a short straight away, followed by a quick steep climb, and nasty little descent, and then a short grinder to the finish. When we hit that turn to the straightaway, I opened it up, took the inside track, and got 2^nd back. It was hard, but it felt good. 3^rd finished 3 seconds back, 4^th only moments behind him. GWad was about 1.5 minutes up on me…not too bad. I have work to do if I am going to keep w/ that guy.

All in all, it was a great day. Beautiful weather and fantastic trails. Good to see the team out en masse, and to catch up w/ some of the SoMD contingent.

Its odd to look ahead to May knowing that the 12 Hours of Lodi won't be a part of it. I've been doing that race for years now...maybe 5 or 6 straight. This year, the kid's baseball team has the trump card, and I've sorta always been curious about the Middle Mountain Momma on the Sunday after Lodi. So that's that. Given my lack of enduro base miles, its probably for the best, though I'll likely give the XXC @ MMM a shot. Why not?