District 16 Season Opener |

Our camp. We let local ledgend John Buechner put his bike under our tent becaues the skies looked like they could open up at any moment. Luckily, they didn't.

The first race of the District 16 Hare Scramble series is done. It was held at the Aztalan MX park just east of Madison, WI under gloomy skies and on very soggy ground. We have had zero precip for the past few months and we were hearing the dust was going to be an issue had it not rained. But we had a gully washer storm roll through the night before the race so there was no chance of a dry race.

Aztalan is about 15 minutes from my house so its very much in my back yard but I don’t consider it to by my home course. I never ride there.

I’ve been looking forward to getting the season under way for a long time. While I’ve ridden a fair number of times this spring, there’s nothing like competition.

The race promoter made a few safety announcements then said “two minutes to the start!” and handed control over to guy with a shotgun full of blanks. I had one foot on the kicker and the other on the box but hardly but a hand full of seconds passed before the gun went off. My foot kicked but it wasn’t enough to start the RM-Z. The entire AA line of 12 bike left without me while I got around to getting my bike fired up. How embarrassing and not the way I wanted to start the year off. It was my fault for being asleep on the line.

The mud was sticky and heavy. Some of the grassy sections were amazingly slick. This was one of dozens that took some care to get around.

I caught the back of the group by the first turn then passed a few guys before exited the MX track for the woods. I could see the front of the field at times and started thinking it was best for me not to panic – just take my time and work my way to the front the best I could. I had walked the entire loop prior to the race so I knew a few places where the course would open up or of a few turns that had multiple lines so whenever I had the chance I tried to get past guys.

The tight terrain suited me since I have been spending so much time at Homann’s doing sprint laps on those 10 wooded acres. It was a huge boost to my confidence when I caught the leaders then passed John Strangfeld to take over second. But in my haste to get to the front, despite trying to remind myself to take it easy, I burnt a lot of energy. And, worse, was that I had used up all 8 tear offs by the end of the first 8 minute lap. I wasn’t a few feet into the second of 16 laps that I tossed my goggles into the woods. I hoped for better vision, that nothing would hit me in the eye and that I could find them after the race.

An opportunity came my way early in those opening laps to take the lead. Normally I wouldn’t be in that position and I would usually opt to follow for a while no matter what position I was in. But the mud that was flinging off the bikes in front of me made riding behind dangerous. I moved into the lead and continued on with a pace I was happy with.

This is some part of the MX track but I don't recognize where. We ran the MX track in reverse so few of the jumps were doable and some of the turns had bumps and berms in odd places.

Not long after that we caught groups of riders from other classes. Although I didn’t have a ton of trouble passing the AA riders early in the race, I really struggled to get by the slower riders we were catching. I guess we were all getting tired and we were all doing battle in our own races so getting by or just getting down the trail was a tough for all. It was while I was trying to get by a group of lapped riders that I made my first of several mistakes that unraveled my race. Strangfeld got by then others that I wasn’t aware of. On lap 9 I rear ended a guy that was struggling to get up a hill. That put me stalled in the middle of the hill. I lost 3 minutes that lap and knew that my race at the front was over.

To get a feel for what the conditions were like, check out spiderwebmxpics.

Parts of my race were way better than I had hoped for. I had great speed and I could ride in the mud and ruts without any hesitation. I was super stoked with my bike set up and have absolutely no complaints about how it worked. But I made silly mistakes that cost me tons of time. That I have to fix if I expect to be at the front of the race.

Congrats to John Strangfled on the win. Once again he proved to be the best muddy conditions rider in the area. Race results are posted here. Thanks to Brian Terry for dealing with the messy conditions and putting together a diverse course on a small piece of land.

Next weekend we are at Sugar Maple Motocross on the west side of Madison. We’ve never raced there but from what I have seen from the road it looks like a hilly and challenging place. Can’t wait!