The Incinerator Bike Race, Eureka

Not a cross country single track race, not a dirt crit, not a cyclocross course, but somewhere in between. 

The Incinerator is a fundraiser for another local NICA team. It's a choose-your-own level race, with the course basically a really long grass/dirt/road crit (3 miles to a loop), with a couple cyclocross style obstacles thrown in. It was different, challenging, and fun.

Edie rode the 12u category. In retrospect she would have been fine in the women's C category, but we weren't sure and since she's been super busy lately we picked the 12u. They raced 1 lap of the 3-mile course. She was the only 12u girl who raced so she placed first in her category by default, but don't let the empty podium fool you. The boys and girls started at the same time and raced together, and she beat the fastest boy by a full minute.

Gussie raced the men's B category, which was 35 minutes plus 1 lap. They ended up riding 4 laps and he finished in 48:45, first in a big group of 21 racers.

He is great at starting and getting out in front early.

Big sections of this course were on a (closed) road. Being on a mountain bike is a definite disadvantage when on the road (you run out of gears even with all the extra traction from the fat tires) but Gussie's race strategy is basically "pedal hard, don't stop." He and a friend took turns pulling throughout the first three laps.

Being able to bunny hop the hay bales instead of having to dismount and run your bike over gives a small advantage back to the mountain bike. (Since this course had so little trail riding, lots of racers choose a gravel or cyclocross bike with skinnier tires and drop bars.)

On the final lap Gussie took the lead and held it. This is his "wow I'm tired and really glad that's over" pose after crossing the finish. With no climbing (and therefore no downhills) and no technical bits to help him stay ahead, this is pretty close to max effort for the whole race.

He took his well-deserved post-race donut to the podium with him.

Michael raced the A category: 40 minutes plus 1 lap. His group was a lot smaller, but that doesn't change his race effort at all. They raced 5 laps in 56 minutes. Michael and three other guys took turns pulling for the first 3 laps, then one guy dropped off so it was three of them for the final two laps. The other two were on cross bikes, which means they had to go the long way around the haybales or hop them on foot. Michael had a lovely time hopping them on his bike.

Michael is also excellent off the start line. In this type of race it doesn't matter as much but in a trail race, the first off the line and into the single track trail has a good advantage so they practice it.

Three kids, three races, three first place finishes. It's pretty amazing how strong they're getting.

Here are some videos, courtesy of Edie.

Gussie jumping haybales:

Michael jumping haybales:

Michael's finish:

Edie's First Horse Show

Edie has been earning and saving money for about a year in order to have enough to take horseback riding lessons for a while (the lessons are way over our regular sports budget so she has to contribute a lot to make it happen). She started this past June and loved it from her very first lesson. She has been gaining skills quickly and her instructor told her she could sign up for the barn's fall fun show.

Each rider was in two classes: a western pleasure walk-trot-canter group class, and for the second one Edie chose Equitation out of that, barrels, or poles. 

She might have been a little nervous while getting tacked up but she did a wonderful job and says she had a lot of fun.

^^ She's in the far corner in the pink shirt. ^^

Edie was riding Turbo, who is not her favorite horse that she's ridden but with a show that is mostly lesson takers on lesson horses, you don't always get your first choice. 

She took 2nd in a very large walk-trot-canter class, and 1st in her equitation class, where she had to memorize a pattern of skills and ride it alone in the ring.

And here are a few pictures I took during one of her lessons on another horse, whose name I can't remember, but he's very cute and she had a good lesson.

NICA Race #2 - Lion's Park Rolla

 It's still really hot and we haven't had much rain at all so this trail was all dust.

Since Rolla isn't very far we went to Agnes's soccer game again in the morning and drove straight to the race afterwards. We got there in time to get our tents set up before pre-ride. Agnes has made some camping friends and was very glad to see them again at this race.

The Rolla park is super nice and had both a pleasant sunset and a great sunrise, plus a night that was not too terribly hot for sleeping.

It looks like every NICA race for Michael is going to have the same top 5 finishers. Last time Michael was first with second and third finishing within a second, this time Michael was third with the same two finishing within a second ahead instead of behind. I love that he has competition in the league and the boys can push each other - it wouldn't be much fun otherwise.

The three of them pretty much rode together the first two laps taking turns leading, then started to push on the third lap (that lap was 30 seconds faster than the first two) and sprinted the finish.

Michael is also one of the default mechanics at his team tent.

Gussie and our neighbor Lincoln are in the same 9A category. It's their first year racing 3 laps (usually 12-15 miles). They goof around a lot but they always lock in for the race.

Gussie worked very hard and earned his third place finish. Last year in eighth grade he did two laps in this race and his fastest lap was 21:48; this year he added a third lap and maintained a faster pace with all three laps under 20 minutes and his fast lap at 19:37. He has been riding a lot and it shows.

It looks like, barring any mechanicals, Edie is going to dominate the 6th grade girls category. She struggled a little on the pre-ride with all the dust, but was able to get out in front early on during the race which clears up your breathing air a lot. She won her 1-lap race by more than 30 seconds.

This is Edie at the start with the 2nd place finisher.

By the finish she was riding alone.

Their team also won 1st overall for this race in their division, thanks in part to the points the kids collected in their races.