we had a great turnout over the weekend and team darkhorse was well represented!
preparations for these races begin months in advance and actual course prep begins in the spring. george got down to the nitty gritty at the beginning of last week by getting out to mark the course. using many many arrows and leaving a considerable amount of blood, sweat and tears out in the woods the course was looking real good.
saturday afternoon we set about assembling registration and scoring, placing banners and the specialized arch, and assembling the "chute". while thunder and lightning threatened and apparently pounded some of the surrounding areas we stayed dry! barely a drop fell in stewart. a quick pre-ride tape check proved that the course was in stellar form. fast, flowing and extremely fun! with all the hardware set for the am we headed off to darkhorse headquarters to feed ourselves and tie up a few loose ends.
race day started early. it was around 4am when i heard george wandering around. it was 5 when he poked his head in to tell me coffee was ready and it was time to get our game on. we stepped outside to a perfect morning. cool, little overcast, but dry.
by 7:30 registration was getting cranked up for the beginners and the usual cast of characters were starting to arrive.
the beginners set off on time at 9:00am and they had quite a field. there were many hard fought battles for the hill climb preem and the spectators got into it cheering on the riders!
the sport class was huge! a great turnout and a very large womens field! its always good to see the ladies coming out to these events. this wasn't always the case and its nice to see that aspect of the sport growing! the sports went off without a hitch and a pile darkhorse racers were in the mix. the singlespeed syndicate was in full effect with all the usual suspect as well as a few guest appearances from some darkhorse racers who decided to shed their gears for the gallop! overall the team did very well in sport and a huge high five goes out to them!
the experts and pros waited very patiently during a slight delay while the emts tended to an injured sport racer. once the green light was given the pros took off like they were shot from a canon. the expert singlespeeders went next and our own mike rave grabbed up the hill climb preem only to be delayed by an untimely puncture on the trail that he helped build!! our darkhorse experts put in a good fight. battling for 3 laps in the increased heat and humidity for solid finishes all.
in the end a good day was had by all! now its time to begin focusing on the 40! couple pictures below of the guys stolen from the web! if you guys have pics or race reports send them this way and we'll get them posted!!!
Rossi climbs with his game face on!
Webb brings it home. he seems to be in a spot of bother!
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