DINO Avon

Today was the first MTB race of the year. It’s the DINO ‘tune up’ race in Avon, IN. This is a race that has no points toward the overall for the series, but is a chance to see everyone and how they’re doing. It was also my first ever race in Expert class. This is the top class for amateur racers. Only pro is above it. There were a couple of people I had my sights on going into it. A few guys I either feel like I should be able to beat or that I raced against years past in Sport class that I should be competitive with. I beat the two guys I wanted to beat and that made it a good day. I rode well and felt great. It is a short race, about half of normal. Experts did 4 laps, which took just under 1 hour.
I ended up 8th.
The real story of the day was Lindsay. She has been MTBing for a couple months to try to get into it. This marked her first ever MTB race. She entered beginner class. She’s the success story because she went from ‘being very upset’ about how hard the course was on her warm up lap, to completing her race w/ a smile on her face. 3 women entered beginner class and she was second. The third ended up dropping out, but Linds was smoking her, so she would have beaten her anyway. I’m proud of her. She’s been training on MTB around here, but wasn’t ready for the technicalities that the Avon course threw her way (log crossings, a few rooty steep climbs, tight twisty sections, etc).
When we got back to B-Town the partying here is absurd (Little 500 weekend). We went to go walk around campus and stuff and hung out at a free concert for a while, got a free Frisbee, tossed said disc around some, watched more bands and came home. My contacts were so dirty I could barely see and were really bothering my eyes. I wanted to get home and get them out. Plus I’m racing road tomorrow and want to get to bed kinda early.