WORS #1

Iola,WI
WORS #1, Bump & Jump Sunday May 02, 2010
by: Tom Kapanke

Woke up early Sunday morning to do a final check of all my gear. Rolled in to Devin’s place about 7:30 for the trip to Iola. Pulled into the mostly full parking lot and made our way to the registration table. Devins daughter was racing so we had plenty of time to watch,relax, and warm up before our gun goes off.
I went back to the car to get things ready, and I realized my number plates were two different numbers. “Thats not good,” I murmur as I head back to registration. Hand the nice lady my numbers and she says,you guessed it, “that’s not good.” We straightened things out and it was time for warm up.
As race time approached, Devin and I made our way to the line. Seems like last year the open single speed category took off 1 minute after the elite women. This year we were the very last ones to leave. With roughly 200 athletes in front of us, the holeshot just became that much more important.
Don lets loose with the famous “GO!” Up the hill we climb. A little rubbing and bumping going on, but mostly courteous as far as I could see. Get to the false flat and through the sand pit. Someone in front of me half-wheeled another rider. No place for me to go so I got tangled up in it. Hop back on the Rig and sprint to the next little climb. Going into the right hand turn, another rider went down in that sand pit. This time I evade him by flirting with the edge of the trail. My pedal hit a stump that was strategically placed there and catapulted me over the bike, tearing my knee up. 250 yards into the first race of the year and frustration was rearing its ugly head already. I still wasn’t sitting too bad so I decide to relax and find some sort of groove.
Got into the singletrack and was having a blast. The traffic wasn’t bad, and whenever someone had problems, there was always encouraging words said. I think I pegged it a little too hard on the first lap. My heart rate was pretty high every time I looked.
I decided to conserve a little bit and just sustained a good pace on the second lap. No problems so far, and my legs started to come around. Halfway through the third lap and into the fourth lap found me yo-yoing behind T6 rider Ricky. No doubt annoying, but gotta thank him for riding so smooth and keeping such a good pace.
I started to get goosebumps on my legs from a little bit of over exertion, but before I knew it we were rolling in the final stretch. Came in 7th place. Great competition as less than a minute separated 3rd place and myself.
Somehow in the race # mix up, the team didn’t get any love on the WORS results page. So I will take this opportunity to thank the 29nSNGL crew. With special thanks to Bobby “danger” and my boy Brian. An old coach said once, “Look good-feel good, feel good-perform great.” So thanks to Twin six, I looked rad.