NO "HORROR" AT HARDING HILL ROAD FOR LBF

So they tagged the race "THE HORROR AT HARDING HILL ROAD" but for Team LBF it was anything but. The experts took off in the mass start across a field and into the woods around 10:05 am, while the sport class gathered at the favored end of the line for the mad dash into the woods. Jamie and I were sitting on the line full of race jitters for a full 15 minutes while Mel was on her way around the first of four laps. We had disscussed that seeing how this was a tune up race and we were doing it for fitness that we would "take it easy the first lap and let the race come to us" which I managed to throw out the window 10 ft off the line as I out sprinted the field and led the pack into the woods. Jamie's exact words cannot be repeated on a public blog but in the process of trying to run me down he rode a few people off the trail that tried to squeeze him out the back door. He caught me in a minute or so screaming "what about the game plan?" I replied with "ok lets just go easy and let people catch us" And thats just what we did, if by easy you mean an average heart rate of 191 then yes we went easy. Half way around the first lap my 1st place led was tranfered to Jamie as my saddle bag opened and emptied it's contents across the trail. I had to stop and let him pass while I unwound my spare tube from my brake disc. At that point I thought I heard someone coming up behind me so after throwing whatever was left in my bag off into the woods I jumped back on and told Jamie to drop the hammer. The noise from behind faded into the distance and we saw no other riders until the middle of the second lap when we passed some of the expert riders then lapped a few sport riders. Jamie tried to break his other wrist a few times on slick roots and a few rocks but wasen't able to and I went cross eyed a few times following legs magee up a few pitches. The third lap was a little more chill, we knew we had a led and rode tempo to maintain it. We came over the last hill one two and crosed the line together an hour and eightteen minutes after my little deveation from "The Plan". The next sport rider came in 7 minutes later mumbling something along the lines of I was trying to stay with those red guys by that wasen't happening.

Mel was 2 minutes into her fourth lap when Jamie and I finished. She was in the lead by half a lap and was going strong. She came into the finish and was greated by about fifteen Littleton riders shouting her name. All smiles she says "did anyone else come in before me?" "no Mel they didn't" I said. She didn't believe any of us until she got the official results and the "queen on harding hill" award for the fastest woman in the race.

Over all every Team LBF member finished 1st in their division and looked darn good doing so.

Dave