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Sunday’s Horny Toad Hustle in Las Cruces had some new trail and probably the least amount of climbing of any course on the NMORS circuit. Race promoter Dave Halliburton put the single speeders with the women….hoping for some sort of duel between me and Jen. Starting a minute behind the pro/experts, we blasted off the line trying to catch as many of the slow experts as possible before hitting the single track.
Jen was with me through the first part of single track until we hit the “side walk”. At that point I blasted past 4 or 5 guys and was able to work my way away from the girl. My 32 x17 was a little big for the long climb on the backside, but it forced me to keep a fast pace. At the top of the climb, I had just over a minute on Jen. The pro’s were out of sight with only a few experts between me and them.
The rest of the race was high speed cruise control. On the last lap I moved into 4th overall. So I guess my new program is working.
What’s the new program? I’ll give you some hints on that near the end of the fall.
Saturday’s festivities included some crazy fools rockin’ the chainless DH. I decided to document the occasion instead of participating as it would have been no contest. Check out the booty in the back ground.
Here’s some video of the action as it went down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miaGtApqkck
Here’s the full results of the XC. I think my SS time will stand until they change the course.
Today we had two rattlesnake encounters today on our 5 hours SS adventure around the Franklins. Our first one was this little western diamondback just south of Bowen’s Ranch. Jen almost ran over it and it didn’t move until I got my camera out and went back to take pictures. After I snapped these pics and put away my camera, we looked up and there was a very bummed out hawk flapping at us. It’s funny how a bird like that can communicate his displeasure. I felt bad. Sorry I disturbed the balance.
Then…..after about another mile on the road I saw this bad boy! And he was either pissed off or just making sure we wouldn’t get too close to him.
He was rattling hard when he headed under the bush, then he got into a great pose for me and just rattled away. This fellow wasn’t that much longer than the first one we saw…maybe a foot longer….but what was impressive was the size of his head and his girth. It was at least twice as big as the first snake. Not the biggest I’ve seen but the biggest I’ve photographed.
The rest of our ride was pretty uneventful other than the stifling heat. Jen was suffering, but rode really well. She’s loving her 659er and can’t wait for the neo-moto tire to arrive even though the quasi-moto his holding up just fine.
Trails of Gnarnia 