Sonya's Twisted Tire Tale

From Sonya:
The first 3 pictures are from Tom’s camera, we didn’t get a picture of Jenn or Paula all muddy because Tom’s camera got wet and stopped working…then here is a picture of Tom from a different camera…you can tell he had 4 laps instead of Kat’s and my one lap because his mud is 4X thicker!












Contes Richmond Store Manager and Rostello Chick,
Kathleen Herndon
















Kathleen Herndon & Sonya Gagnon Tom Richeson 1rst Mens Master
Beginner women 2 and 1!!



I am so proud of Jenn (Roman- Graphics Goddess) for finishing. Tom has mountain bike raced for many years, and he said that was absolutely the worst race he has ever done in his life, so Jenn I hope you feel great about that.

Tom on our team also placed first in his expert 40+ category. And John Gonyo from our team placed 1st in the fixed gear category.

We had lots of wins/places so I thought we might win the team cup but we didn’t!

Oh baby, it was a mudfest! You couldn't even recognize people or their jerseys after the race. Will definitely share some pictures when they come in! I was worried about the roots, but turns out the mud was more slippery. Every corner fishtailing or wiping out. I face planted or rolled about 3 times, and had to get off numerous times to push the bike up hills.

What was really weird for everyone is that almost everyone lost their brakes- all that grit in the mud was like sandpaper. My brake pad on the front are completely worn down and need to be replaced, Tom had disk brakes and his pads were completely worn out and down to bare metal. You could hear all the brakes shrieking through the woods. After my race I stood near a hill and watched racers go by- some were even dragging their feet to slow down on the hills. It was outrageous.

The airport reports we got 3.3 inches of rain!!!

I was behind one woman in my category for almost ½ of the race, trying to catch her. She ended up stopping at the top of a hill, I don’t know why but I got past her then. Then at some point in the last part of the 2nd half I heard someone behind me, it turned out to be Kat! She was on my wheel the rest of the race, and we sprinted at the end across the field, me winning by a slim 7 seconds!!! Good job Kat!

I must say at some point when I got used to it, it was kind of fun playing out there in the mud and rain. If it was cold it would have been miserable, but the splashes of water when going through mud puddles actually became refreshing.

Thanks Sonya for the Guest Blog and report. I'm awful Glad that I race on the road!