And the series is under way!

Thank you to the 109 racers who came out with enthusiasm! We had some great racing on a somewhat short course. Dawson Bauer came through flying in the Kids race to start things off. He had a large gap over 2nd place. Nolan Stephenson did the same in the juniors 10-14 race, with lap times around 3:20. He's come in 2nd in the overall in the past, and looks as though he's been training to win it this year. We had a couple of juniors 15-18 racing, but they opted to race Men's C's (and absolutely crush the rest of the field, Eric Brunner) as well as the other elite categories.

Will Nabours dominated a few early season cat 4 races to get his Cat 3 upgrade, where he consistently places in the top 10. He had a rough start in the Men's B's, but he showed how his road power converts to mountain biking. It took most of the race, but he managed to catch and pass Tim Godby, winning by a few seconds.

Diana Tanner is a newcomer to the Women's B's at Short Track, and she might be an A soon. She had a nice gap to her win over Marian Mead (2nd overall last year) and Brittany Engleking (last year's winner). The Women's A's had the smallest field on the day. Nicole Duke started things off with a blazing 2:56 lap, and then settled in at just over 3 minute laps after that. Michele Norosad had some series chain-suck at the start, requiring Kaj from Full Cycle to work his magic. Jumping in on the 2nd lap, she couldn't keep up with Nicole, but kept her within a 20 second gap the entire race. Claire Bensard and Michelle Bliss rubbed elbows fighting hard for position, with Claire beating Michele out by a few seconds at the end.

The Men's A's took no mercy on the first lap - with last year's winner Brady Kappius coming through after an INSANE 2:15 first lap. Once everyone found their positions, the pace eventually settled to 2:40 lap times.   A group of 4 riders stayed with Brady until 2 to go when he once again put the hammer down. John Mansell attempted the course on his cross bike, which slowed him down on that corkscrew descent and some very loose dirt sections, but he made up time on that long uphill. He finished proudly after a tough race, that followed about an hour or so of pre-riding. A few other riders had a lot of fun with the race, one making a different animal noise every time he came through the finish (clucking, barking, howling, I think I heard a horse neighing as well in there...), and one of our single speed riders held a very impressive wheely through the finish.

Check out the full results here, and let me know if I misspelled your name (I think I got most of them right). Donny was out taking some Photos, as was Dejan, so stay tuned for some links to their galleries.

Some notes about the race: we're sorry the generator died so early. We'll be sure to have music for all the categories next time. As for the course, it seemed everyone felt like they were almost always climbing, but then enjoyed the corkscrew descent. We're limited in how much of Valmont we can take up, but we'll try to make the course a bit longer for next time. We'll also put the finish in a wider section so that those close sprints at the end won't force one of you into the grass.

Please let us know what your opening impressions are of Short Track at Valmont. How does it compare to the Research Park? There are fewer parking spaces there, but was the parking situation still adequate? Be sure to thank the Valmont and other City employees for their efforts to getting our series put on there. Finally, we're still looking for a few more volunteers. So if you can offer a hand and would like a free race entry, email us.

See you next week!