Jay Richards

A great day in Red Wing. Was hot, but not humid and most of the course in the woods so not too bad, just had to keep the liquids going. Almost bagged not going but this course is one of my favorites so wanted to race and Jake really wanted to go. Jake started second wave and the way the course is at Red Wing if you don't have the hole shot you'll get stuck in traffic. Jake worked his way up nicely in his wave but soon caught the first wave so spent most of the first lap weaving and waving. He ended up 8th overall and had a good gap over Luke in the age group. Our race was a long race. I knew it was going to be close to 2.5 hrs so I just tried to ride a steady pace. Luke Nelson led the first lap nicely until near the end before the singletrack that leads to stairway to heaven. I didn't want to follow and breathe dust so I attacked and went to the front. I maintained the lead until back in the open field I leaned into a corner like I always do and went down hard. Now in third wheel with Jesrin Gaier and Luke Nelson in front of me. Did the gully thing which is super fun and cool and then Luke got hung up and Jesrin quickly had a 15 second gap. I chased it down and caught back up to him into the second lap. We rode together and put some time on the riders behind us. Near the end of the second lap, I attacked in the same spot and got a little gap again but Jesrin closed it down in the grassy field. We rode together most of the third lap and then Jesrin put in a big acceleration and I had to let him go. Jesrin would put 1:45 on my by the start of the fifth and final lap. My goal at that point was to try and bring it down to less than a minute. I was feeling a bit better and seemed to be able to recover from the quick accelerations. I saw Jesrin a few times and did some time checks and could see I was closing it down. That motivated me and I really cut loose. The double track climb I could see Jesrin and the gap was down to 30 seconds. When we got to the Stairway to Heaven climb, I had him in my sights and gave it my all. Jesrin was cramping big time and I passed him near the top. I kept going hard and thought i had a gap but Jesrin came back up and the race was on. There was one more climb so I knew I had to punch it to keep the lead. I finished hard and rolled across for the win. I clocked 31 miles so a long race. The crash, the heat blah blah, feeling it today. Super fun course thought and glad they had all the good stuff in. THe only bummer was the grassy corners. The block 8s worked great, just a bit sketchy some times. I thought I was running too low of pressure but they were fine, even though I thought I was going to flat a few times. Jake ran the Karmas and those might of been the top choice but i was able to middle ring Stairway each time and no spin outs so bottom line they worked well.




Jake working his way up through the first lap traffic.

Up and on to the next group.
Super fun, fast and buffed singletrack at Muddy River Rock and Roll.
Some spots to catch some air and other obstacles but tried to keep the rubber close to the ground amap.
Jacob Huot with the way cool kit. A few years ago he showed up at Maplelag thinking the race was going on but it was a few weeks early. I told him about the race in Jamestown so he went and did that. The spirit of mountain biking. He had some coding on his back. Not sure what it meant. The cheering section on Stairway (which was the best of the year) had the same coding.
Few days off the bike and end of the week will be spent at the lake with some long White Earth state forest rides and serious family time.