Canal Crown Race 2

For some reason I didn't blog on Race 1 of the AJBW/SORBA Canal Crown, so it's only right that I make it count for Race 2. Where do I start? Attendance was up a considerable amount as we went from 10 to 15 racers! The beginner class doubled and the sport and expert classes had a few extras as well. In typical fashion it was never a dull moment. As we were getting ready to start the pre-race meeting we hear CrossBoss say to Bare Nuckols, "Uh, there's a snake by your foot Bryan!" And sure enough merely one half of an inch away was a 4 foot black snake making his way through the trailhead, and Bryan's feet. Fortunately no one was harmed by this, apparently, non-venemous reptile. But Lowell D couldn't resist himself and switched into Nat Geo mode to wrangle him up. After a few pics with this creature of the wild the racing began.

LD, snake wrastler.

Race 2 had everyone going in a clockwise fashion with an uphill finish straight up the middle of the stairs...As in dgaddis and I piled up a bunch of branches on the left side of the trail (definitely the easiest path) to force racers into the center of the stairs (definitely more challenging). Being that JT won last time we let him start first. Roughly 11 minutes later he started up the stairs, got about three-quarters of the way up, and came unclipped resulting in the first fall of the evening. Being that JT's a dang good rider, I immediately thought, maybe making them ride up the stairs was a bad idea...nah, what was I thinking, this is no time to be soft, it's an MTB Race?! After watching everyone kill themselves trying to ride up the stairs a few of the racers figured out they didn't have to ride the whole way and started running their bikes up to the turnaround. But no one matched Ross and his cyclocross style dismount, to run up. We were still talking about it the next day in disbelief. He was like a giant gazelle fleeing a close encounter with a cheetah!

The Crossboss, part man, part gazelle, seconds before the run-up.

The expert and sport class racing continued, everyone was having fun, and the beginners were the last racers of the evening. One of them was barely familiar with the trail, the other doesn't own a bike and has never ridden the trail. This could have gone really bad, but thankfully both did really well and neither of them came back to the finish bloody or bruised. It seemed like they had a lot of fun, despite having no idea what they were getting into. And that's the whole idea behind this race series.
F-U-N!

So dgaddis did some math, got everyone's times, and the victors were given their spoils. Third and second place received their trophies/beer shot glasses. First place for each class received a custom made trophy by myself...OK, so I just added some spice to the same 50 cent trophy everyone else got. Everyone was stoked on their winnings and we all hung out for a little race re-cap. Ah, yet another good time!

Now that's a trophy for the mantle! Look at that commercial style head. Perfect pour!

Click here for the official Canal Crown web page with results and pics.