GROC Fat Tire Fest

This past weekend was the GROC Fat Tire Festival. Held at Dryer Rd Park in Victor, NY. Originally started as a time trial race on the trails, my first race there was abysmal. But last season I persevered and took home the XC win. Headed back to the race this year to have some fun & of course to represent the #1 plate that I was given!

It was a fairly short course, but completely revamped from prior years. Not much of a roll out, but right onto a singletrack climb, up to the top of the fields, across the fields and into the trails. A fast technical & twisty downhill and then onto lots of short & steep climbs that just seemed to keep coming. Back out onto the field around top and then ripped the descent. Repeat 4x

Evil Steve took the holeshot and pegged it up the first climb. It was nice as it actually took a ton of pressure off to rip it up the climb. I stayed nice and steady and then attacked him as we came over the top in the field to take the lead into the singletrack. By the time we exited Chutes & ladders I had a decent lead that grew when I attacked again coming up the Elevator climb. I kept the pace up and by the end of the 2nd lap I had a good 30-40 second lead. More of the same on the 3rd lap, the only real excitement being of course when Bridget missed my feed. She was afraid of coming onto the course & when I reached out for the bottle, she decided that she’d test my coordination by throwing the bottle to me. Well, I ride bikes for a reason and don’t play ball sports… I laughed pretty good and wasn’t worried at all. I was turning 20 minute laps and it wasn’t too unbearably warm. The 4th lap I had a solid 45-55 second lead over everyone and stupidly decided to take a look back across the field just as I entered the singletrack. ….Down goes Igby! hit the deck pretty hard when I clipped a pedal. Lost a few seconds, but regained my composure and held on for the victory.