WORS #1 Iola - Andy

Iola, WI
WORS #1 Iola Bump & Jump Sunday May 10, 2009
by: Andrew Schirpke

Finally first race of the year for me. I’ve been playing VBall but nothing prepares you for WORS. I’ve been wanting to see all my MTB friends and I was glad winter was over.
  Started the weekend off with my cuz and Uncle driving over to our house Saturday morning. Got all the gear crammed in our Jeep and loaded the bikes on the back. The only new part this year is a Trager tube. 10 minutes into our journey and we had to stop. Held’s beef jerky. Then straight to the motel in Iola. Checked in chilled out and made our plans. We headed to IGA and picked up lunch and breakfast for the morning. Got back and started to eat. First strangers…Chelsea and Danielle, It’s been a long winter. Got dressed and headed to the hill.
  Pulled up to what looked like a full on race! Went to the tent and got all legal. Plates, bibs and tags, now for some fun.  Figured we would do a couple laps just to see what the conditions were. Super fast, but we were all a little rusty. I felt really good even though the hills were a killer. All systems go and except for my dad making my tires rock solid everything checked out.
  More friends to see. Senkerik’s(Photo), Maciej, Heidi, Chris, Pirat, Darrin, Guerra’s, Chad, Carlos, Kid Rock, Ronsta, Kelli, Richard, Cupcake, Russell(you suck), Mud, Joe, Mike, Russ, Jeff, Claire, Matt, Riley, Wally, Joel, Jim, Kelly, Shane, Jeffrey, Don, Amy and a bunch of others. It’s kinda overwhelming but fun. So we packed up and headed back to town. Went to dinner at the Crystal Cafe. I had the 24hr breakfast. Back to the room and 5 Office episodes. Got to bed by 10:30. Alarms were set.
  Got up at 7, ate and showered. Crammed the Jeep again and headed to the track. 70 degrees. Got caught up talking to more people when my Uncle yelled 5 minutes to start. So much for warm-up. Pushed up to my wave and got on the line. Man these guys are big. 10,9,8,7,6,5…GOOOOOO! Ok start and was in the middle of the pack. No change for about twenty minutes. Then the fast(sandbaggers) started to catch me. There is a lot of singletrack and I spent too much time making room. Second lap and I got my hand-up, slammed a gel and readied for the hills. I finally dropped one racer and that would be my only move up. Great course but I wasn’t in race form.
  7th for age and 65th overall. Right in the middle and better then the rest of our group. Rusty….remember…but moving up was the best thing to do. I just have to get use to all the traffic.
  Free pasta and recovery. Waited for the Comps and Pros and did some handups and rang some cowbell. Tristan won and Darrin looked super fast. Another one down and 11 more in this series. Things can only get better.
See you in Rhinelander…maybe Stump Farm???

- Andy