Hurricane Laddies

Labor day weekend marks the annual Laddies Loppet mountain bike race. When I first started mountain biking and racing, I was hooked on the spot and thought " we have to do a race at Maplelag" The first year was mostly on ski trail, in 1990. We had a 8 mile race and two laps of that for a 16 mile race. Some people got lost and I haven't seen them since. The next summer we started to build some singletrack by the lakeside. My good friend Steve Wenzel and a crew from Fargo helped build a big chunk of trail in two days. The trail was built not by code or reason other than what I remembered being cool trail to ride in some of the races I did, with Quadna sticking out the most. The next year we had the race, people hit the lakeside section and I haven't seen them since. To this day, we build trail how we like to ride. 

Trail building has changed in recent years with the terms flow, purpose built  and sustainable common language heard. Although the trail has been criticized at times, the track has held up great over 20 years. Every year we do some tweaking and additions and this year, thanks to a cooler August in general, we did a ton of berm work and smoothing things out/root removal. Riding this past week after the course has been "ridden in" I feel the east side or main loop flows the best it ever has. The event has pretty much grown ever year, especially on Saturday, which is great but personally I liked the size it was at 5-6 years ago. At Maplelag having a quality experience is more important than the numbers. We struggle trying to provide that experience with 700 people rolling through the door like there was on Sunday, maintaining the cookie jar philosophy etc but the people in general are as good as it gets. We are committed to having the race as it has grown to be, trying to improve each year. 

The two most important things is that no one gets seriously hurt or lost. The event was successful this year in that this didn't happen, other than some bumps and bruises and a possible dislocated elbow?

 There are a ton of people who help out to make things happen. Have to give a big shout out to Maplelagger Denny Barry who spent pretty much all day Friday and half of Saturday blowing out singletrack. I did some blowing on Wednesday and Thursday and it. was DUSTY! I told DB to bring a dust mask.

Registration room. Jonell steps up to the plate more and more each year making sure things flow as smooth as possible. Big thanks to Kriston, Meredith, Kate, race officials Larry and Sue Martin, Jonell's sister Val, Marci and Matt Johnson. Meredith lined up bingo action for Saturday night which was a big hit and good way to wind kids down.

 Saturday morning after doing course inspection. Come back to lodge and nothing better than seeing a ton of bikes in front of the lodge ready for a weekend of fun. Thanks to everyone who made voyage to the Lag.

 Brendan Moore taking a pass on the extra sausage to have the engine firing as clean as possible for a record tt time.

 Garrett, Cole, Jens and Grant post race tt. Cole is a hoot as he would always be giving me race updates in the xc. Having been to all the races in the series, he knows the riders well and is a big fan and passionate.

 Beach time Saturday afternoon in between races. Pretty much perfect end to the summer weather.

 My man Bruce Adelsman setting up camp in a nook in the lodge. Brought his big monitor along to process the thousands of photos, selecting ones to make the cut. Big thanks again to Bruce for providing full coverage of all three events.

Jon and some of his hockey buddies helping out over the weekend. Along with our core staff and volunteers, thank you.

Start of a Kids Comp race. Maplelag was the first race to have Kids Comp. Jake and I were racing in the WORS in the early 2000's and Jake raced in Citizen Youth and realized it needed to happen in MN. This is my favorite class to watch, not just because Jens is racing but I love the enthusiasm of all the kids. There is a great group in the 9-13 age group and will be fun to watch them progress.

One more lake jump before heading home. I didn't see much of the action, if any, other than one of the last families to leave and made for a perfect ending, capping off a great weekend.

 Tuesday morning always marks the first day of school. Jon 9th, Jack 7th and Jens 4th grade this year. Obviously different with Jake off to college at Scholastica.

Jack is in full swing of cross country with three meets already. He is having fun, good group of kids and doing great. I ran cross country in hs and was some of my best memories with the best coach I ever had. Glad one of my kids gets to experience it. Not sure if they will do any circular jackalope hunting though. Pretty sure it is banned now. 

 Over the weekend, in between helping out with a wedding weekend, Jon dinged his ankle goofing around with his buddies. Nothing crazy just one of those accidental things. This makes 6-7 trips to the ER in DL, room #5 the last 10 months. Seems like a lot of visits but this is spread out between myself, Jonell, Jake, Jens and Jon,  Like Jonell said, keeping active with four boys there are going to be bumps and bruises and always thankful it isn't worse.