A Cancel any plans you have for July 4th weekend for the next few years. You should be going to the Oesterling Farm in Marysville, PA for the VisitPA.com MTB stage race. This is the most fun race I have ever been to (sorry Sam, I never thought something would pass the Fat Tire). Why? It's all atmosphere. This entire race takes place on the race director's in-laws farm. You camp and hang out in the back yard. The start line is 20 yds from your tent. All of the races go have the same starting line and they all go right by your tent. There is a Friday night XCTT in the dark, a Saturday XC race (part of the Mid Atlantic Super Series race series), a Sunday AM Hill Climb, and a Sunday afternoon STXC. For this year the XC was not yet included in the Stage Race results, but that will be changed next year I was told. What else makes this great? The MASS racing scene is very laid back compared to WORS. The semi-pros/pros were just hanging out with everyone and dispensing advice when asked. Frisbee with Harlan Price, Tricycle racing with Rob Lichtenwaller, and a pre-ride with some of the VisitPA.com semi-pros. Debbie, who is not usually a fan of attending races outside of Puerto Rico, was already planning next summer before I started the Hill Climb. Over the course of 4 races and a weekend you really get to know the other racers and it makes the competition that much more fun.

Okay, enough gushing, on to the racing since this is supposed to be a race report. I came into this race having raced the previous three weekends. By the end of Sunday's racing I would have raced 9 races in just under 21 days, so I wasn't in my best form but I was feeling fast enough. On Friday night the race director loaned me his lights after he finished his TT and Rob Lichtenwaller then hooked up his set on my bars. Lupine lights are NICE. We rode about 3/4 of the XC course in the opposite direction. I had done a pre-ride with one of the team members and that helped me to figure out some of the technical sections. I did a pretty good job for me in such a short race. 8th place in my group (19-45 yo sport + SS) and first in my age group (but that doesn't count for the stage racing). I had just a couple of bobbles. Trying to sleep when you finish racing at 10:30 is tough. Sat. AM we had great weather again, a little swampy by mid day. We raced only two laps of a nearly 8 mile course, but it was tough. Technical flats, thick fields, long hills, some roots and rocks. For the XC we raced by age group so I was with the 40+ crowd. I took a look around and decided that I would be near the front. We went off the line and settled in the top few and we climbed through a field and I was in first. I didn't really want to be in first, but we were entering a technical section for a while so I figured that I would control the pace. Then the sound of brakes squealing, metal clanging, and bodies falling could be heard behind me and I knew it was a good decision. By the end of that section there were just two of us working together in the lead. As we got to faster sections we were able to pull away from the others. I started to move away on the second big hill section. Unfortunately, all was lost on a nice crash in the last technical section as I was passed by the new leader. It took a while for me to catch my bearings and get my pace back. Then I started to work back. On the second lap, I was able to get the leader back in close sight on the second hill again. Lo and behold the root and rock gnomes grabbed my wheels again and it was over. I pedaled in for a respectable second. Wait until you see the pink jagwires on my hardtail! In the stage race, I was looking forward to the hill climb. I knew from the XC that I would thrash my age group, the goal was keeping up with the 20 something crowd. That proved harder than I expected. It was a mass start with the experts just in front, but with no gap. I quickly started picking through people on the lead in and started to feel good. Despite beating all but the top 20 or so experts, I was only fifth in the sport group. Insult to injury, they changed the prize payout from 5 down to 4 for the hill climb. I had one bad line choice in the 3 mile climb up a ridge that led me into a rut and resulted in a dismount. The climb was a combination of dirt road and pavement and a little rocky road. By the time the STXC rolled around, I was tired. However, I was big on my newly founded sprinting skills (I was coming off winning a sprint in a group road ride the previous Wednesday night in NJ). The course mazed through the camping and all of the people. We did 20 minutes + (10 laps). Tons of fun, nothing technical, a little climbing, and sharp corners. I took off with the lead group for the first lap and then settled to the lead of the second pack after the first 5 showed too much speed on the flats for me. I was feeling good, avoiding the bumping, and pushing the group on the short climb. Just as I was starting to get a big head on lap 6, I saw a bike down coming into the hairpin drop turn. I called it out to everyone, only to change my turn and crash myself. As it turns out the bike wasn't a crash, it was just that some guy left his bike there. Bye-bye second group. At first, I'm chasing like I'm pissed. Then I'm chasing like I'm tired. I ended up next to the other fastest guy my age so I figured I'd let him work and then beat him to the line. I let him lead the sloggy sections and then passed him on the hill each lap, then made him pass me to take the sloggy section in the lead. I figured that I would just not let that last pass on the last lap. Last lap is apparently a relative term to some. We are coming in and I see the clock says 19 minutes. I let him pass and then as we come around the turn before the line I hear a group yelling sprint, sprint. I figure that I messed up and I get out of the saddle to catch and just miss him at the line and collapse a bit ... only to find out that it was just his teammates yelling and we have another lap. I'm an idiot. I chased back but didn't catch - 10th place. Overall, I think I was 7th in the Stage Race (first in my age for what it's worth) and second in the XC. We stayed for the bike toss, lunch cooked by the neighbors, and some good byes.

See you next year Marysville. Who's coming with us?