Brighton Stage Race Report

Brighton Stage Race 2008

This was my first race of the year and my first ever stage race, so I went in just hoping to finish and have a good time. The weekend was VERY hot and humid but we managed to stay out of the evening thunder showers. Day 1 included a time trial on the hilly and technical Torn Shirt loop followed by a short track XC race later in the day.

The time trial was set up to send out riders one at a time in 30 second intervals. It started in a grassy area near the beach, went out onto a gravel road (where I thought I was lost), and then continued onto the Torn Shirt trail, which is tight, twisty, and hilly. My goal was to get up all the hills without walking using my 32x16 setup. I ended up walking two I think. about 36 and half minutes later, I was done and drinking gatorade as fast as I could. I was shocked and really excited to find out that I had the top time in my category (Beg/Sport SS)!

About 3 hours later and it's time for the short track XC. This was a new for me. The 2/3 of a mile course was laid out throughout the beach area and was probably 95% grass with the rest a mix of pavement and sand. All the sport, beginners, and single speeds took off in a mass start to complete 5 laps. I got off to a slow start and lost time on the single speeds pretty quickly. I think I should have used a bigger gear. About half way through, I busted a seat rail so I had to finish with my saddle in a not so comfortable position. I ended up losing all of the time I gained in the TT on the second place single speeder and went into day two about 12 seconds behind.

The XC race on day two consisted of 3 laps on the Murray Lake trail, which is absolutely perfect for a single speed! Biscuit and Dennis Bauer from the team also raced the XC. It was even hotter than the previous day, so I loaded up an extra water bottle. At the start, I kept up with Biscuit for most of the first lap, but then started fading a bit. Biscuit was able to hang onto the lead for the entire race and ended up taking the win. I finished about 40 seconds behind (I think) for second place and Dennis came in 5th. That's a pretty nice showing for mysinglespeed.com! As for the final overall standings for the stage race, I ended up gaining 5 seconds back on #1, but that wasn't enough so I settled for 2nd overall. I'm cool with that.

bratney