CHAIN DRIVE RACE RECAP



Sara's knee isn't looking so hot after yesterday's race. That said, she was able to ride pretty hard all things considered and luckily, was able to win another Chain Drive - her fifth in a row. The crash happened about six miles into the race so she raced about 24 miles in a bit of pain. Hopefully, she didn't do any serious damage by finishing instead of pullin out, but only time will tell. She's hobbling around and will need xrays if it doesn't get better in a few days. The crash also pulled her front derailleur cable out of adjustment and she couldn't get into her big ring so she had to ride in the 29. Our neighbor and good friend, Diana McFadden finish 2nd and Michelle Peariso finished 3rd - the same podium at the 2005 or '06 Chain Drive.

On the way to Houghton a bear ambled out of the tall grass off of Highway 2 near Maple, WI and did its best to become a hood ornament on the Volvo. Luckily, I was able to lock up the brakes and do a little slide to avoid the thing. We were pretty excited to see a bear, but it would have been a lot better if it would have just hung out by the side of the road instead of meandering across it.

Once we arrived in Houghton, we went to the Best Western to check in but they didn't have us on their registration list. After a couple of phone calls, the kind folks at the front desk upgraded Sara's free room (a perk to both the male and female winners thanks to Best Western)upgraded her to the honeymoon suite!





As you can see, we had a great view of the harbor and a mac daddy room. Thanks Best Western!

After a pedestrian start, the race finally kicks in about 2 miles out from town at the base of a pretty steep, winding blacktop climb. This year there was a prime for the men so the front of the group started ramping it up at the base of the climb before entering the single track. Mike ended up taking the $50 prime and I was fifth going into the single track and immediately a gap opened up when the fourth place ride went down, blocking the trail. I got close to Brian Matter, Mike Anderson and Chad Wells (MI guy) by the end of a short section of singletrack that spills into a bunch of undulating two track but couldn't really push any harder without going into the red. I sat up and Chris Peariso flew by so I grabbed his wheel and he pulled us up to the group. As soon as we latched on I got spit off and rode about 29 miles in time trial mode. I could see the group of four for about eight miles and spectators kept saying I was 1:30 down on Chris. I crashed pretty good going uphill with about 3 miles to go and basically shut it down and rode in. At the finish Brian outsprinted Mike to take the win, Chad was third, Chris was fourth and I ended up fifth.

All in all, it was a great day minus Sara's knee injury. To do it all over again, I probably should have talked Sara out of riding her new Trek since she didn't get to really ride it before the race. We spent an hour on the first section of single track Friday night at 7:00 PM dialing in the bikes. It's fine for me, but I think it was a little too tough for Sara. Even though they are very similar to last year's bikes, they are lighter - especially our wheels and tire selection - and that can change the responsiveness of the bike quite a bit.

Thanks to all those involved for putting together such an incredible event. This must do point-to-point course is FANTASTIC! The majority of race is single track and each year the group adds more. Furthermore, there are a ton of other trails in the area and the folks are top notch.

Kiera had a sleep-over at Grandma Sally and Grandpa Tom's house in Two Harbors. Needless to say, she was exhausted when we picked her up last night and for the first time in many months, slept until 9:00 AM.