I did the CORA (Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance) series kick-off this past sunday. It was just across the Ohio River in Burlington, KY at England Idlewild park.
I got to the race in plenty of time to warm-up. Ride a bit of the trail and chat with some friends. I was hoping for a better turnout for expert women but I think most of the ladies were at home with their Dads. My Dad was out in Denver expecting his first Grandbaby so I didn't feel bad cutting out for the day.
The start was pretty crazy because we started with the expert men but there wasn't enough trail to spread things out before the start. I stayed right behind a pack of expert guys for the first few minutes of the race. I was surprised to see the guys sliding out on the first few sections. I was out climbing a few of em. No joke, I'm lovin the 29er on those muddy steep climbs. It rules.
Anyhow, the rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I lead from the start. I felt bad for a lot of my friends as I saw Joe, Justin, Bill, & Bob all suffer bike/body mechanicals. I felt especially bad for Joe in his recent bad luck.
The actual race was pretty darn hard. A lot of the expert guys were finishing and looking like they were pretty toasted. Mitch was coughing up a lung. Marty cramped bad. They were broken. I was certainly lucky to have only had to do 2 laps.
It was a sweet, hard, fun, and best of all a LOCAL race. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the CORA series.
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