Missouri Gold

Last weekend was the Down and Dirty MTB race witch doubled as the 2012 Missouri State Mountain Bike Championships.  This was the event Christopher wanted to win to earn one of those sweet Missouri State Championship Jerseys along of course with a Gold medal.  For me I was just along for the ride -  A heavy work load added to only training with Christopher does not make a fit Cat 1 rider.....

 The Warsaw promoters did a lot of good things like having a cool finish line, a well marked course, food vendors, podiums and plenty of  volunteers.

 Down and Dirty had a mass start for all the divisions. Christopher was a little concerned about this as it is really easy for other classes to have an "effect" on a State Championship race, plus you do not know who you are racing against.  Separating the start into several waves, especially with the narrow starting area, would have been a good idea. However, everyone had the same conditions. 

 I told Christopher just to ride within himself and not to worry about who is in his class.  I also told him that he would most likely catch the tail end of the Marathon class and to try and not let them hold him up.  He has a habit of not passing when he should be more aggressive/assertive and make the pass.  Everything worked out well as he was able to pass Dylan Bartlett for the lead about 3 miles in.  He did not let anyone hold him up very long which was a good thing because he only had a 30 second cushion when he came up to finish. 

 

As I mentioned above, I was just out for a training race. It was nice to visit with my teammates. The Truman Lake Mountain Bike Park course was fast and fun.  I was a little disappointed with the lack of technical features.  I was told that Warsaw had some technical sections, but I did not find any.  The flyer said it was "challenging" with rocks.  None the less, I had a smile on my face for most of the day.  That was until I got really, really hot on that 3rd lap.  Not riding with a Camelbak in that heat took its effect.  As you can see by the above picture, tire selection/set-up was important.  All I can say is Kenda tires ROCK!

 

Christopher was really hoping to bring home that sweet Gold/Red/White/Blue Missouri State Championship jersey, but all he got was a printed award on paper along of course with the Gold medal (provided by USA Cycling) he worked so hard for.  As you can see by Dylan's, Dalton's and his face they were not real happy campers.  Hopefully the promoter can get MOBRA to come up with jerseys for all the class winners.  I also talked to Andy who said that this is in the works.  That is good to know.    

In the mean time, I  gave Christopher my jersey that I won several years ago to have.  He was much happier after he put it on. 

You may notice I am critical of the awards.  There are several factors that go into this.  One is that I feel that if you are going to promote the state championships event that you should do it right.  As a promoter I always felt it was an honor to host a state championship event.  Awards are very important to me, both as a participant and a promoter.   I put a lot of money into awards over the years because I feel participants should be awarded something unique for their efforts.  To see generic paper awards (not even class distinction) be given to class winners just is not right. Christopher has not raced in several years, but he has been involved in our events and he personally has put a lot of work into awards.  So I guess he expects the same as I and was a little upset.   Add in that he did not get to celebrate on the podium with a state championship jersey which might have been  his last chance.  He is thinking of trying out for Cross Country next year as a Junior and will put cycling on the back burner.