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Day two of the race was a 2 lap xc race for 18 miles total.
The race was out in the desert east of the rio grande a few miles outside of Socorro.
At the start
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You could see, way off in the distance, South Baldy which we climbed the day before.
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My legs were pooped but I decided I was init towinit and geared up to a nice tall 34-16 gear for maximum race winnability. Race had 13 single speeders and 120 total racers over all mens catagories.
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The race started on some fast fire road rollers transitioning into fireroad with sharp whoopde arroyo crossings and then single track. I started really fast and got out in the front of the single speed field. I was shortly winded and overhauled by the devil guy, Ray and Issac. As we got into what seemed to be an interminable single track climb, I fell back a bit and got stuck behind the tail end of the races that started before. It was OK, I was not feeling spry. One other single speeder past me on the climb and I settled in.
After the climb there was lots and lots and lots of really fun loose singletrack. Including the coveted sweeping transition from fast down hill to loose uphill turn, so you could two wheel slide a bit as you pedal hard out of the turn. It was some great desert riding.
As the end of the lap approached there was a little arroyo transition with a singletrack climb, with a nice cactus pad smack dab in the middle of the trail. I tried to bunny hop it, but hit it with my rear wheel. Fortunately the sealant held and I lost a tiny bit of air. The end of the lap had some nice steep short rollers that were perfect for cyclocrossing. I was feeling a bit better and started to crank up for the second lap.
As I said, I was sitting in 5th in the single speeds for the at the start of the second lap and thought I could see number 4 way up there, so I was determined to make a race of it. As I was flying through arroyo crossings I ungracefully exploded my rear tube and flatted. Crap. So that is flat number 5 in socorro racing, 6 if you count the car tire on the way down. Thank you cactus pad.
As I fixed my flat, 5 single speeders passed me. Dammit. I got going again relatively quickly for a bolt on rear wheel flat and started chasing hard. My legs felt like crap but I thought I could catch most of the guys who passed me.
Nope. I saw no one through all the fun single track which I took at massive speeds and got to the final mile of rollers and finally saw a whole bunch of people ahead. I dug deep and cyclocrossed my way past most of them and got one single speeder for a final place of 9th. XC results here.
Somehow I managed to still take third on the omnium, overall here, I guess I was tied for 3rd, but got it on combined time. So good for me, all told. I also "won" a replacement tube in the giveaway as we were waiting for the results.
There were a whole mess of guys from Cruces who came up for the race on sunday, that were not there on saturday, all on green singlespeeds of some sort. They were team Uno Verde.
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Anyhow, the race is getting better each year. More and more singletrack, less and less flat dirt roads. Stage race. Everything good.
