COMO + Bubba 9

Made the 2 hour trek west for a one off Saturday race in Columbia, Mo. Josh Johnson with the help of the CBC put together a super fun course with a spiral of death that could be seen from the once planet, now big frozen rock, Pluto. The spiral of death was half the lap. It was HUUUUGE.



I didn't pedal a bike one time the entire week. I did a couple easy runs but that was it. Needless to say I had no legs and knew I would feel slow. Yep.

Race gets going and I pretty much sucked. Was riding around in 6th for a couple laps out of 9. Then slipped to 7th. There was no where to recover. It was super windy and there were many areas of just hard pedaling.

5 or so laps into the race the entire field was all with in the spiral of death still, even though the leaders were close to 1 minute ahead of last rider.

Aaron Koch left the race and I had to put in an attack on the last lap to get ahead of Mike Best to finish 7th out of 9. Shitty.

Totally fun race and worth the drive. The guys from COMO that race in STL every weekend have my applause. Takes some serious commitment and gas money to make that drive every weekend.

Bubba 9 had us back at "Mt. Shoot me in the face" winery. All the previous years racing here I hated it. It was always super nasty descents that were followed by equally nasty climbs.


This bike would be more suitable for climbing at this venue.

This year was a tad different though. It was raining and muddy. Not super muddy but very slick. And the rain actually let up before our race but the damage on the course was already done. We were going to get dirty.

The race had a neutral start because of a 180 on asphalt turn which I think was a good call. Safety first.

I held back not really knowing what my legs were going to do. Pedal mostly, but not sure how well they were going to do that. Lots of crashes the first lap. First time up the run up I rode it passing a few riders. My Dugast Ryno's were hooking up.


Photo - Mike Dawson


Photo - Mike Dawson

After a few laps I started getting heckled about being too clean. I was doing a pretty good job of staying on two wheels, and riding almost everything every lap.


Photo - Mike Dawson
Dan in the background having a less than desirable day

I stayed near Anthony Dust and TK for some time. About 15-20 seconds back for probably 3 or 4 laps. They soon slipped away and then Sam Moore caught me and passed by as well.

At 3 laps to go the heckles were pretty funny about being so clean. I had managed to stay upright the entire race. But, on two laps to go my luck ran out. On the fast downhill with the rut in the bottom that I had ridden perfectly lap after lap got me. I was slowly going faster and faster through with out issue but blew the fuck up this lap. Not sure if I hit a hole or what but landed on my head and slid about 10 feet while my bike cart-wheeled over into the tape. Bike and I were fine though so I got up and kept moving.

Finished the race in 8th and was the last rider on the lead lap. Josh and Dwayne were flying in the mud.


Most important part of the day was actually having fun at this race. I love racing in the mud. I typically do pretty good in it and am glad it was shitty out. Looking like a chance of snow showers and rain again next weekend also. YES!!