What? MOBster Brownie on the podium 2 races in a row? Say it isn't so...

Now before anyone gets too excited - let me explain the confluence of events which led to me making the podium 2 races in a row. This confluence occured, in spite of my building for a season ending peak with my training the last 5 weeks. When the wind is right. When the stars are in alignment. When the big guns don't show up for the race. When my legs are rested and ready to rock... With all of this in the best of all possible worlds, it is possible.

Also let me say that I am very impressed with the results listed below from other MOBsters at various events. It's been a good season for many, that's for sure.

IMBCS #8 Science Center TT was held on Sunday, September 7th in Des Moines. A few of the big guns in the series points contenders for the sport open category were no shows at this race. This opened the door for me to turn a good lap on my Sugar 293 and shoot for a podium spot in the open category. I managed to turn the best lap and snag 1st place points in the sport open category. Sounds more impressive than it was, but when the stars are in alignment - you run with it and don't ask questions, right?

The following weekend was a scheduled Psycowpath Race in the Nebraska series north of Lincoln at Branched Oak Recreation Area #7. 3 days of rain before the race caused the obvious reschedule for a week later on my 47th birthday, September 20th. The reschedule meant I would be doing a Psycowpath race on Saturday and the IMBCS Sugar Bottom Scramble on Sunday for a weekend of back to back racing. I had to go with the full suspension Sugar for the weekend to keep my 47 year old body from failing. ;-)

The stars were in alignment again as the 3 big guns in the sport open series in Nebraska were no shows for the rescheduled race date. This left the race open to the rest of us in the top 10 in series points to grab some points. The loop was 2.9 miles with some nice climbing and technical challenges due to the erosion and ruts from the heavy rain season this year. Sport Open was slated to do 6 laps. The race began with a one mile gravel road climb where we managed to form a pace line right off the bat to dig and pull ourselves up the climb as a mass of huffing and puffing wannabe racers. I managed to jump into the singletrack in 4th position and moved to 3rd during the first 1/2 of lap #1. Categories started only a minute apart, so by the end of lap #1 - nobody knew who was in what category anymore as the course was crowded with lots of passing going on during the entire race due to the short 2.9 mile loop and all the racers out on the course.

I had made the decision to keep a high cadence spin in an effort to pace myself for back to back races. I mashed pretty hard in lap 1 and lap 6, but kept a nice spinning pace in laps 2 through 5. In spite of that, these climbs had me at the edge of no return as they were not really steep, but they were sustained long climbs. Those climbs had me looking like this for most of the afternoon...



And when I did manage to look up on the climbs, I was in the cardio pain zone of open mouth drooling...



At one point, I managed to find myself in 2nd place as I passed Brandon Harpster (he's ahead of me in series points this year) when I saw him pulled over in lap 5 adding air to his rear wheel. He caught up to me in lap 6, but I couldn't hold his pace to stay with him to the line and crossed the line in 3rd place for my first ever podium finish in a Psycowpath event.

Crossing the line at the end of lap 6 spent, but not down and out...



Getting the medal and the gift certificate on the podium (me on the left, Andrew Keffer in the middle and Brandon Harpster on the right)...




September 20th, 2008 at the Branched Oak race:

1 Andrew Keffer
2 Brandon Harpster
3 Bruce Brown

Again - I'm not complaining when the right confluence of events takes place to allow a podium spot. It doesn't happen all that often - that's for sure.

I was right back to midpackitis on Sunday at Sugar Bottom where I finished 18th in Sport Open and 26th overall for the 50+ sport riders. Outside of the opening climb where I was unable to get the legs and lungs going to pass more than 2 on the gravel dust bowl race to the singletrack, I thought I rode well and had a good race. But we all know it is hard to do well when you go into the singletrack in about 40th position!!! However, I shaved off about 17 minutes over last years time (race times were running about 5 - 8 minutes faster over last year in all categories due to conditions and the route). So finishing at 2:04 was better than last year when I finished at 2:21. The course was in perfect shape and from my point of view it was the best I have ever seen Sugar Bottom. This year, the course was marked very well with no "which way do I go corners" out on the course. Everyone was pleased with that.

Over and out. It may be a long, long time before my next podium.....