[Triangle-AR] umstead night race

[Bruce.Dale at TownofCary.org]

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 
www.trianglecyclopaths.com 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 
begginer 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 
Pictures from the race below:




ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/unity/lockers/project/forhyd/umstead






 




ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/unity/lockers/project/forhyd/umstead












 











 










 

















ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/unity/lockers/project/forhyd/umstead