Trimble Racing

Tymor Park XC Mountain Bike Race Report:

No full play by play race report for this race. Instead I’ve posted a few photos from the weekend with a description of what’s happening. In the end i don’t even know exactly where I finished as no-body from the Campmor H2H race series has posted results yet. I believe i was somewhere between 10th and 15th. I’ll update this information as it becomes available. It was great to be back off road although the experience was humbling.

Climbing out of the single track and onto the soccer field which split the lap in half. The first half of the course didn’t give me too much trouble. Once over the into the technical sections I had trouble keeping my bike on the trail

Pre-race face. I hadn’t ridden off road for almost six months. My legs are in good shape but you need a lot more seat time to be competitive at the Expert level in mountain biking. Based on appearance my competition wasn’t to be taken lightly.

Tymor Park located near Union Vale, New York has miles of beautiful single track that are only (to the public) open once a year for this race.

The race started and I assumed my standard spot near the front. I slotted in second off the line and put heavy pressure on the leader for the first few miles of the race. I even lead briefly before my lackluster handling skills began shuffling me back.

Second place through the woods. The pace here was brutally fast but strong and had no problems aerobically.

Making the move for the lead. It was short lived however as i fumbled my way up the next technical section.

The lenses blur offers perspective on the speed through the narrow single track

This nasty plain burger may have been the best i’ve ever had (or so I thought at the time)

On the train back home. Wet, muddy, exhausted and defeated. Nice way to spend a weekend.

Sport riders descending at the end of lap 1

Making new friends on the train home. These drunk rednecks were on the way to see the Yankees play.

Carving through Tymor Parks lush single track. At this point in the race I’m battling inside the top five.

Dan Chabanov is scared of nothing. Even racing a mountain bike having never even seen trails before. Kid’s got balls.

Dan post race and in one piece. No blood so he wasn’t trying hard enough.

Hounding the leader early in the race. Poetic shot by Dan Chabanov.

Pre-race technical difficulties.

Dan ascending out of an opening in the woods. He rode a full carbon Trimble Mountain bike.

Digging deep while losing moral. The second lap of the race was very tough mentally. I began losing many spots and struggled mightily on the slick roots. A combination of bad bike setup and lack of trail time was in full effect.

Grand views along the Hudson

Kissena colors work well in the woods

Halfway through the second lap all hell broke lose and the rain flooded in. A hard race grew even more difficult. My ancient v-brakes signed off and i found myself walking technical sections that should have been ridden. The mud levels weren’t extremely bad but the course became very slick. Many sections had off camber runs with roots and logs transversing them.

On the last straight away i received a large dose of mud in my eyes. For the last section of single track i blinked furiously but couldn’t clear the debris. I ceased being able to see the trail properly as both of my eyes filled up with water. I was happy to finish this race.

No showers after the race. Dan and I rode from the train station in Poughkeepsie 15 hilly miles to the west. After a hard two and half hour race another hour on the bike in the pouring race felt like it was going to be hell. We pleaded for a ride but nobody had room in their fancy cars for two muddy kids and their machines.

The ride ended up actually being enjoyable. I put my head down and blocked everything else out as I plowed through the rain. All I thought of was food.

Sunset over the Hudson

Starting the second lap with a serious onlooker waiting for his guy.

Nice to look up and see trees instead of sky scrapers