Whip Your Hiney...

...at Wapehani. Known for its twisty, technical paths with a couple of steep hills, Wapehani is Bloomington's mountain bike park. Read a short history of the park here. In fact, the mountain biking community has been holding races there since the early 1990s. DINO races were very popular back then, too. Some old results are posted on DINO's site. Do you recognize any of the names?

Last Sunday, 4 Bicycle Station team members with twice as many fans, participated in the DRT race. The Pro/Expert men suffered through 6 grueling laps while the sport men rode 4 or 5. (It sure is hard keeping track of laps as a spectator; maybe Blake can give some pointers.) Meanwhile, the fans cheered, dodged water bottles being hurled at them, provided hand-ups, took pictures, and swatted mosquitos.

While Sport racer, Jay R suffered some mechanicals right from the start, the Pro/Expert field had 4 strong leading riders that included Matt B. and former Bicycle Station employee, Art K. Not far back was Mike B. on his seemingly weightless bike. Bad luck continued to plague the field with more flat tires as Mike & Matt both had to stop and make some repairs. This left Art & Andy riding together for a couple of laps. Art put the hammer down in the final 2 laps emerging as the victor with Matt taking a podium spot. Congrats to all the riders on this challenging course.

Matt chases after fixing a flat tire early in the race.

Mike prepares to hop the log.

Peek-a-boo

Art leads the way.....hey, that bike looks familiar.

Some team members and a fan pose for a post-race pic.

It wouldn't be right without Mud - Muscatatuck

What more can I say? The North Vernon AMBC race seems to attract the rain. More often than not, this particular race teaches us how to negotiate peanut butter corners and mud bogs. With the last 2 races in these conditions, learning to ride in the mud is quickly climbing on my To Do list.

However, the conditions weren't a deterrent for the 160+ racers that attended DINO #4. Even our Cat 3 team members, Baylee, Zane, and Loren came out to get dirty with superb results. Congrats to Baylee on her podium spot!


Saturday started the festivities with the short track; the course was perfect with rain just starting to come down toward the end. Coach Battin and Meredith both earned podium spots and State Championship medals for their 30 minutes of pain. Congrats!

Following the circuit race, was the downhill extravaganza. Again, the Jedi Master showed us all how to negotiate the slick rocks and may have been the only one to ride the entire section! Not bad for a guy in spandex, non full face helmet, and an 80mm travel fork (or is it 110mm--can't imagine he'd want the extra weight of a longer travel fork?). Congratulations to all the Bicycle Station team members that braved the gnarly descent. With the wet surface, the rocks were even hard to walk on!

After a day of steady rain, the XC course was nice and slickery for the main event. Foreshadowing what the race would be like, Fett came back from the pre-ride covered in mud with the advice to keep your wheels straight when riding on the wooden bridges. I paid particular attention to this advice and thought of it every lap.

Most everyone stayed upright. Baylee told some superwoman stories of flying over her handle bars at some point but still held on to 3rd place in her division. We had another strong showing of Bicycle Station participants who raced well and hard. Denny & Danny enjoyed the home course advantage. Another friend and teammate decided to wear the orange, green, and blue colors on that day: Dave McComb. Is he a Jean Luc replacement???? We can only speculate at this point.

Thanks all for some good times before, during, and after the race. And thanks to Denny for sitting somewhat close to us this time. Versailles, DINO #5, is coming up soon; are you ready?

Danny gets out of the saddle during the mudfest.

Blake concentrates on the slick root up ahead. Or is he thinking of the lecture he received before the race about acting like a mature adult?

Meredith always manages to stay clean in the muddy conditions. Teach me how to do that.

This is how NOT to do the downhill race:

John and Dave are getting ready for peanut butter and switchbacks.


Noah makes gains in the kids race; and does it with a smile.

Mike is flying! And I'm trying to decide who is a bigger weight weenie: Mike or Matt?

Fett--cleaned up after the spill earlier in the day.

Name That Race ... or is it the Harbinger of Muscatatuck 2009

You be the judge.

Or is this another caption contest in the making...what the hell is Ange doing?