Sometimes, you gotta race...

Mountain bike racing season has begun!

Chris, Bobby and I (Kyle) loaded our bikes on the car and drove 5.5 hours to Bethlehem, PA for a race at Lehigh University. As far as I can tell, this is the only ECCC MTB race within 10 hours of Pittsburgh this year.

After convincing some wedding party guests to calm down and let us sleep, we woke up bright and early Saturday morning. We pulled into a nearly empty parking lot and made some friends with some folks from Northeastern.

The parking lot filled up and before we knew it it was race time...

 Bobby tearing up the rocks with his rigid fork.

Kyle attempting to stay ahead of the one other singlespeed rider.

Chris looking pro as usual.

The course consisted of a rocky descent down a mountain, then a seemingly endless climb back up it. Bobby and I were 2 of 3 people rocking rigid forks in the C race.

Bobby's technical prowess and bike-shouldering ability led him to a win in the C race! My 6th place finish was good enough to hold off the other singlespeed rider. Chris would have beat me had he not flatted with no time left to make up lost time.

After convincing the Lehigh guys to give Bobby a free t-shirt for his win we made a quick stop at the downhill course. Chris and Bobby took turns riding Chris's hardtail with a 100mm fork and the seat removed alongside guys with body armor and forks with like 2 ft of travel. Then we packed up the car, grabbed some lunch, and drove back to Pittsburgh.

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Bobby, Brian, Cajer, Issac, and I met up at 7:30 Sunday morning to head out to the first Month of Mud race at Brady's run park. This was the first-ever mountain bike race for Cajer and Issac. It was also my first attempt at racing with the big-boys in the singlespeed category.

The course consisted of 2 6 mile laps of singletrack with lots of climbing. Bobby finished 9th in Sport, Brian finished 12th in Beginner, and I was surprisingly not last in singlespeed. Thanks to John Pratt and Mike Briggs for the photos.

Clearly still sore from the day before.

Sheer determination.

Brian tearing it up.

Cajer's first MTB race.

Isaac's first MTB race.

Overall, a great weekend of racing!