Triangle Adventure Racing Team

The race went well last Saturday night…we had a lower than hoped for turnout ..but due to another event taking place same weekend might have hurt it some…..the park was impressed with our efforts and organization….no trash left on trails…no injuries…everybody that rode seemed to really have a good time …the weather was great..the trails fast and hilly especially for Raleigh area…..thanks especially to Ernie and Brian for Marshalling the course and to Trianglecyclopaths for pairing with us on the race. Maybe now we have our foot in the door for “other” night events.

The race started with a paced ride from the State Park Ranger, I believed this would be very moderate pace…however the Ranger turned out to be in very good shape and an avid rider himself so it went out pretty fast. Once he pulled off, the cyclocross riders took off in a literal cloud of dust…with one Mtb’er in the sport (25.2 miles) category hanging off the back….I got dropped pretty quickly by the start of South Turkey Creek trail…though I felt pretty strong, I knew I had a long way to go…the first lap went by pretty quickly and without the use of lights for most riders. I ended riding the first lap with two other riders…one in the beginner category and one in the advanced (3 laps). I felt strong and pushed the hill up to the paved road and back into the check-in in 7th with the 5 cyclocross riders and one Mtb’er ahead of me….on the second lap I went down in the one of the curves and lost my lighting system. Not wanting to waste alot of time fixing it…I rode on in the dark until I ran into Ernie and Brian…I quickly borrowed Ernie’s headlamp and pushed on..by this time an advanced rider came up from the back ..he must have had a HID light because I thought it was a car at first….I decided to stay with him and take advantage of his light system. It turned out to be a good call, because the guy was seriously pushing hard and I was back just holding on for dear life. We came in to the check-in together and he pushed on for his third lap and I ended my night with a second place finish in the SPORT