Kenda Cup #1

This past weekend I headed to Ducktown, TN for the first race of the 2009 Kenda Cup. Griff and I loaded up the van and headed to Tenesee for the weekend. If you have never been to Ducktown its a world all in itself. It is only about 15 min from the NC line and about the same distance from the GA line as well.

It was a very wet weekend, It only stopped raining for about and hour or so each day during our two day stay in Ducktown. On Friday night when we arrived it was already dark and of course...raining. We quickly set up camp and called it a night for we had a big weekend ahead of us.

Saturday morning came early with my alarm clock going off at 5:22am. I had forgot to cut it off the night before so I was awake very early. Rain was in the forcast all day Saturday and the weather man hit the nail right on the head. It poured all day Saturday until around 3pm. Andrew and I took that opptournity to get a ride in on the course to see what was in store for us come Sunday. Our ride was nice and slow and we took time looking at how the rain had affected the trails and how it would affect our riding style.

Saturday night after our ride we chilled around the fire with Donnie and his wife and Cassie who had tagged along to be our podium girl that Addiction Cycles had provided for the big event. The night brought some good conversation and great laughs around the campfire. Marley (andrews dog) also gave us quite a bit to laugh about during our evening.

Sunday morning was time for the big event. I was awakend by pouring rain once again to bring in game day. I was not to excited knowing that I was going to be racing 20+ miles in the pouring rain. Luckly the weather let up around our start time of 9:30. They yellow wave went off with the pros leading the way. Each class went off on 2 min intervels. After a short wave the sport 19-29 class was off. We headed towards woods guided by out lead out KTM. Once the bike had peeled off the race was on.

Our first section of trail was a single track climb that went up what seemed like forever. Due to the rain that we had all weekend the race promoters had to change our race course and send us all the way to the top of the clip via the gravel road rather than sending us around the mountain on the trail. This made for a very interesting start to the race with everyone trying to get to the front but not wanting to blow up on the climb.

The first lap was very fast. With this being my first race in the sport class I was a little hesitant to stomp on the gas this early in the race. With the muddy trail conditions and faster riders in my class I wanted to take some time to get a feel for what was going down. Half way through my first lap we had reached the downhill part of the race and I started to loose my place with the pack. My decents still need some work and with the mud doing a number on my brakes it was not helping the situation.

By the start of the second lap I had slipped back from 6th place to around 9th place. I was trying to maintain the speed and momentium that I had throughout the second lap. This lap was fairly boring since I was all alone in my quest towards the finish line. I did come across some other riders who where having the same kind of day I was, wet and lonley. I made up some ground on the riders ahead of me during the second lap but not as much as I would have liked. As I came to the end of the downhill section brakeless and tired all I had was pavement that stood between me and the finish line. The rain had started to fall again and it was kind of nice at this point. Covered in mud the rain felt refreshing even though it was quite cold.

After all the racers had come in and the race promoters had done their job of sorting things out the results were up. I made my way through the anxious crowd to find out where I had finished for the day. I ended up pulling out a 10th place for the weekend. I was very excited at what I had accomplished.

Now its time to get the bike tuned up and some new brake pads. Once thats all said and done I need to get some more training miles in so I can finish on the podium. Stay tuned for future race results and stories.

Nicky 6