Tour of Socorro

Last weekend saw two Rez Dogs heading down to Socorro.  Bob R.  competed in the full Omnium doing both Saturday's monster South Baldy Hill Climb and Sunday's Cerrillos Del Coyote XC race.
Bob rides in the 50+ Cat 2 and did quite well, managing a podium spot for 3rd place in the Hill Climb and 7th place in a good sized and strong 50+ field in the XC race, together earning Bob a 3rd place podium spot overall in the Omnium.

When I asked Bob about the Hill Climb, the man of few words responded, "It was a suffer-fest!" Bob did say he enjoyed the XC course.

Way to go Bob.

I was unable to do both the Hill Climb and the XC so I wisely choose the XC as my race.  (although looking at the results for the Hill Climb, I think I could have done pretty well this year)
In a nod to my previous performance at the Screamer, and to stir the pot a bit, I took off off of the front on the start of the race, using a rouge steer making its way across the dirt road to my advantage to jump ahead of the field.  By the time we reached the turn off to the Jeep trail a hand full of guys had caught back up and I was sitting around 6th place.  I managed to pick off a few more as we made the switch back climbs and was pretty happy with my position at that point.  A fellow racer, Garrett, who always gives me some good competition was in sight and I was hoping to chase him down.  About halfway through lap 1, the course takes off down a pretty fast Jeep Trail/Fire road with a really nasty rock ledge on one of the corners.  Knowing that lots of guys seem to flat there I proceeded to bunny hop the ledge instead of slowing down.  Lets just say my hopping skills need some work.
(see the youtube clip below for some pointers)

Instead of allowing me to maintain my speed and chase down Garrett I managed instead to open up a previously small sidewall tear in my rear tire.  By the time I had reached the road for the second lap it was too low and I had to stop and put some air in it.  One guy passed me that I then had to chase down to try and regain my spot.  About another 2-3 miles in, again my rear tire was painfully low...crossing the bumpy Jeep trail ruts was giving my rear wheel more of a workout than I can afford on my teacher's salary, so I again stopped to hit it with some air.   And again 2 more riders passed me (1 from my age group, 1 from the 40-49).  To my luck I was able to catch them again and regain my spot.

Riding up the final hill to the finish I could tell I was on about 15 psi in the rear tire, but risked it to try and maintain my spot at the finish.  It held and I ended up being the 4th guy in and 3rd for my age group.   It was another fun race in Socorro and I'm hoping to get a big Rez Dog turnout to dominate next year!