Large Group

Another Wednesday, another Dupont ride went off without a hitch. It was our biggest crowd yet with D-Kuntz, Paul, Cliff, BrouSSard, Andrew, Jim, Jeff, Blair and Wooglin all showing up.

Jeff and Jim are visiting from Florida so we took the same route as last week. This is one of my favorite night loops now.

The only thing different about last night’s ride is that we added in Turkey Knob Road and Poplar Hill Loop. Going around Poplar hill counter-clockwise is fast. The downhill becomes so fast that you just sit back on the bike and try to stay loosy goosey.

I had the 32X20 on so coming back out of Turkey Knob was not as torturous as normal. I was able to gain enough speed to actually carve some of the turns. Flying down Reasonover was fast and dusty as can be. I made a mental note to slow things down on the hair pin last night.

A couple of the troopers made the move up the bridge:

BrouSSard:

D-Kuntz:

Riding Laurel Ridge to Shoals was nice and un-eventful until we made the intersection back onto Corn Mill Shoals to hit up the techy climb. I was in the lead and made one move and had to pull over to let the others make a go at it. Andrew spun his way to the top and was the only one out of eight of us that made it to the top! He is the only one of us that had re-constructive knee surgery in the past 7 months too, we should be ashamed 8-)

Since I wasn’t following the MountainGoat this week, I felt like I was keeping up better on the slick rock down to Bridal Veil. That is a tricky section as it goes from big rocks on top of slick rock to a 90 degree turn in the sand. Watch that front wheel!

Going up the Conservation road I got a little excited and tried to drop my little kiddie hammer and I thought I was doing so until everyone passed me like I was standing still near the top.

Second in line coming down Airstrip was a treat as I watched BrouSSard pull out the Mamba with the trail and trees. Its hard to tell if those moves are intentional or not. Then at the bottom I nailed the log crossing, even putting together the transition from the big log to the small log, sweet.

We didn’t have much daylight left so I led the climb out of Mine Mountain again. I pushed it as hard as I could go. My legs were shaking at the end. What a great night.

Peace