Jay Richards

I didn't do so well following the Charlie Farrow rule of racing more than the hours spent driving...about 7 hours short there but that was some great racing yesterday....and I would do it all over again. I don't know why, maybe the short and intense, on your toes, dusty/sketchy corners, weaving through lap traffic, adrenaline rush after crashing but coming home I was more motivated to race than anything. Growing up playing hockey, my style was to hit the ice flying, going "until you feel like your guts are going to come out" (my dad would say to do) and yesterday felt like that, other than my guts stayed in place pretty good. Personally, I like the shorter and intense races, like short track, and would like to hit the cross scene more but Fall is a busy month at the resort. I definitely favor the 1.25 to 1.75 hour races for xc racing, (although one year it would be fun to tackle either the Cape Epic/Trans Alp/Trans Rockies.) With more and more options for "epic", endurance, multi-stage, 12/24hr and point to point type races where the challenge for most racers is the challenge within, if you know what I mean, shorter races makes for more exciting "action". Don't get me wrong, there are often times tight battles in the longer events as well. Anyways, it would of been nice to have maybe a bit longer loop at Buck but thankfully we could race. Both Jake and I thought the lap/course was fun. The biggest negative was the lap traffic but that was expected. One more lap for the experts might of helped for the little battles at the end but whatever. Thanks to Sam and Eric for making it a great race. The end of the second lap I had this crazy adrenaline rush, something I haven't felt in 10 years and just exploded past them but I guess age caught up to me. All in all it was a great day, despite the crash and happy with the fifth place finish. I thought the fields in all classes would of been higher and surprised to only see about 23 experts. Nice to see Jeff H and H-Wood on the line.


Since coming home from Nationals, Jake has been taking it pretty easy, nothing serious on the bike, keeping it fun. He will start gearing up for the Maplelag race where he will be racing Expert (the Maplelag race is a National Calendar race and qualifier for 2009 US Nats at Sol Vista, CO) and Cheq.
Can't remember if it was the 3rd or 4th lap but when Sam attacked on the pavement climb and went to the front, I stayed on his wheel. Super dusty and couldn't see the stump in the middle on the one corner and went down. Eric passed me and gap was about 10 seconds after that and remained the rest of the race but couldn't close it down. Final lap lost seconds here and there trying to work it in traffic but I am sure it was even across the board. Big thanks to the Franken fam for doing water handoffs....execution was perfect. Bruce out on the slopes, catching the racing action. He has had a busy summer as usual including giving the Maplelag website a face lift, and got a sneak preview....looking sweet.
This time of year is always super dusty out west. I remember racing at McCall, ID in a WIM race (Wash/ID/MT) when we lived out west and the start was like this 3 mile downhill...super dust....bunch of rocks...couldn't see anything. Made it through clean. Just followed dark objects in front of me. Its interesting when people say "this so and so race is the most technical..blah blah" and things like that. Personally, I think a race like Buck is more technical than Spirit just because the speeds are so high, you have to be dialed in 100% otherwise you are down. I bet there were more crashes yesterday across the board versus Spirit. Its all good.