Farmall Hill Challenge - Aug 5, 2008

The wife (Renee), the kids (Noah and Hannah) and I began our annual pilgrimage north to pay homage to those responsible for us entering the world and to those with which we entered (i.e. siblings/friends). So off we drove to Fairport, New York on August 3, 2008. Some nice things about Fairport, other than being the current place of abode for my wife's parents is that it is located on the old Erie Canal and thus has a tow path on which to ride bikes. It is also a short ride from some very nice Finger Lake Region road riding (i.e. hills). There are also numerous mountain bike trails in the area. On August 4, Noah and I went for a nice Father/Son ride along the tow path from Fairport to Schoen Place in Pitsford, met Renee and Hannah for lunch at the Coal Tower restaurant and then rode back. All in all 18 miles which was Noah's longest ride to date (he's 10). The next day was the Farmall Hill MTB race. Basically, a MTB race on the farmland of two property owners in Fairport, NY. One property owner is also the owner of RVE Bike & Skate, a local bike shop. The promoter is the owner's son. The course consisted of a two mile run around the old farm. There was some open field riding, a lot of single track through trees with plenty of steep climbs and descents but nothing overly difficult, that is, until the rain came. I did a pre-ride before the rain and was able to ride most of the course except for a couple of steep hills. It rained during my pre-ride and after there was a part of the course that crossed a sloped muddy bank where you fell walking because the mud was like ice. There was also a very steep descent that was about 80 feet long followed by a 40 feet similarly steep climb that was on top of a knob where if you went straight you would plunge down another drop off but the course went ninety degrees right up a longish steepish slippery climb. This was one major league whoop de doo. The rain stopped before the end of my pre-ride so at 6:30 p.m. we were ready to roll. As I approached the registration table the young lady working it asked me "Sport or Expert?" That gave me a good laugh. I told her that I was a licensed beginner and that I intended to ride that class given the threatening weather. The beginner race was three laps and we started near the edge of a field and meandered around the property to the course. I was in sixth place entering the single track steep muddy climb and mud rink. All five ahead of me stopped and walked up the climb, so I joined the crusade and passed two guys on the climb and one who fell on the side slope. With one of the two guys in my race ahead of me in sight I knew I would be in good shape. I caught and passed the next guy on the very next climb. I reeled in the last guy ahead of me just after the big whoop de doo and followed him around to the first part of the second lap. On the first climb he was walking as I rode up so I got off my bike, walked past him and across the side slope and never saw him again. I then started passing guys from the Sport race who started one minute ahead of us. I passed about five of them and was ready to pass another at the end of the second lap. As we came to the line the promoter told us to head to the parking lot because the weather was getting much worse. The wind had really picked up so I didn't doubt him. Sure enough, just as I got to my car the rain came and it was horizontal and there were bright lightening followed by loud cracks of thunder. I just stuck my bike in the car and got in as quick as I could. I stuck around for about ten or fifteen minutes simply because it was raining to hard to see and I had fogged up the windows. The promoter posted on their web site that anyone who raced on the fifth would get a free entry to either the second or third race of the series. Oh well, what would have been an extremely satisfying victory turned into absolutely nothing since I 'm not driving seven hours to do a six mile race. The rest of the week was nice. I took the family to a park in Victor, NY that had an amazing number of MTB trails (Dryer Road Park) on the sixth and then we went to visit my family on the seventh. Noah and I did another father/son ride on the Alleghany River trail which took us about an hour. On the eighth I did a ride from our Hotel up to the top of Rock City Hill. Rock City Hill overlooks the whole area and took me about twenty minutes to climb on my MTB bike. At the top there was a pretty good rain squall. I got soaked and the temp was about 60 in Olean so it as probably about 56 at the top of the hill. I turned around and headed back to town reaching a top speed of 40.9 on my mountain bike. Again , my ride lasted about an hour.