Press Release 04.27.2006

Weekend Race Report

from teammates of the
WV squad - Mazza Vineyards /Inferno Racing Team

Event: WVMBA Point Series #1-Mountwood Park, WV; Sun. 4.23.2006

Sport Class 19-34
by Bruce Miller

Well I did my first mtb race of the year today. It was at Mountwood Park near Parkersburg, WV. The race started off pretty well. I couldn't get to the front row so I started in the second or third row back behind a couple of kids wearing sweat pants shorts, this kind of scared me. I'm not real sure why they felt the need to start on the front row but oh well, what do I know. I'm sure it hurt them a lot more than it did me.  A couple of minutes later we took off.  I made my way around them but unfortunately quite a few others started didn't have the same road block.

Anyway, the race started off with a one mile gravel road climb. I was feeling pretty good going up it. I managed to pass all of the sport racers except three. It then turned to a muddy singletrack. I was able to pass two of the remaing three sport racers in this singletrack. I passed two of them riding, one of them running up a short climb. At this point I was feeling pretty good. Now I started passing some of the Junior and Vet experts, then some of the women experts. I was feeling great. We hit about 1/4 mile of pavement and I continued to pass. We made it to some more single track where I went around four women experts and a couple more junior/vet experts. We stayed on this singletrack for about 1/2 mile. It then went to pavement for 1/4 mile, I kept passing. I couldn't believe how great things were going and how great I was feeling.

We now entered a parking lot, another 1/4 mile and it would be all singletrack for the next 13 miles. I couldn't wait! I passed a couple more riders. Next thing I knew it felt like I came unclipped. I couldn't figure out why but oh well just clip back in right? WRONG!!!!!!! I looked down and I didn't have a pedal. It was still attached to my shoe!!!

What a way to end a day. Unfortunately the multi-tool I was carrying did not have the right size allen wrench to fit my crank brothers pedals. It is against the rules to borrow a tool from anyone else so that was the end of my day. Go from first to DNF in .05 seconds. My first mountain bike dnf in four years of racing. 

High School Class 15-18
by Josh Cook

The race was very well planed out.  At the start of the race the Experts left across the parking lot but there was some fine sand on the right side of the lot. One racer completely washed out and took out with him 5 or 6 other racers. When I saw that I pulled off to the left side of the Sport pack so I could avoid that happening to me. When the man said go for my class I was caught totally off guard, but where I was off to the side so I got the jump on every one because I was already locked into my pedals.  At the start of the first lap after the prologue my team mate Bruce Miller had one of his pedals work loose and he didn't have the tool to fix it with him. I hated to see him have to DNF. I am sure he could have made up any time lost because he is such a good racer.

The entire prolouge and most of the first lap was very wet and muddy. The second lap was partially dry with a few exceptions of course.  I had brand new tires but I was still spinning out on the usually easy climbs. I thought that I was in last place because everyone around me just disappeared.

I would say that I finally got into my racing grove maybe 45 minuets into the race.  I started to gain ground on my other racers, by the start of the second lap there were two of my class riders in sight.

As we started the climb to the ridge I really gained ground on them. At the top of the ridge I was able to pass them and put some space between me and them.  On the second lap there are two technical parts they held good on the first rocky section, but the second was a drop off there were places on ether side of the big rock to ride but all he saw was me disappear down. I heard one say whoa!!!! At the sight of the drop I did not stop because I didn't know if there were any more racers within catching distance. So I really pushed myself speed wise down the rest of the tight turns of the course. Once I had made it down to maybe the last quarter of a mile of the race I dropped the hammer as hard as I could go for the finish.  

After I finished I was riding around to cool off I found out that the same guy that caused the pile up at the start of the race had crashed somewhere and dislocated his shoulder. It turns out that I was not last after all but I had placed 5th out of 10 finishers and a few DNF's. Over all I had A great first race at Mountwood and I will be back next year to do it all over again.

Pictures from : www.iplayoutside.com

Results: www.iplayoutside.com