Manitoc Battle Royale

NEO stop #2 met us with seriously dry conditions at Manitoc. It was do dry that the first 2 miles were nothing but a dust cloud, I couldn't even see the trail at times. No complaints here though, it was the most fun race I have done in a long time. I purposely didn't go too hard at the start since I had not raced in 6 weeks. On the first lap I was riding with Lorson, Cochran, and some younger experts. Nearing the end of the first lap I passed Lorson on a downhill as he was blazing some new trail. A bit later I could hear him go off the trail again.
I kept a steady pace and he caught back up, we road together for quite awhile. I was able to stay with him on the climbs this year which is a nice change for me. Manitoc is a pretty open course, there is some tight stuff, but not enough to suit my type of riding. The Groovy was performing well and I never even came close to sliding out on the silty areas. I was running Nevagals front and rear with about 25psi. I'm pretty sure Lorson had too much air in his tires because his rear wheel slid out on numerous occasions.
On the third lap we hit that long steep climb and both dismounted to run up it. I took two steps and knew that if I took one more at that speed I would cramp. So I ended up walking as he pulled away. Once I got back on the bike I felt fine, but the damage was already done, another 2nd place for me. That's ok though, I was 7nth last year so I was actually quite pleased.

Pendleberry and Twining had a great race and battled it out for 1st and 2nd in the Pro/Expert. Heck, I didn't even see any blood dripping off of Jeff this time, internal bleeding maybe?

This week I'm trying to get ready for West Branch. I went to the Knob yesterday and rode 7 laps total,6 by myself and one with the wife. I felt pretty good and paced myself appropriately, but on the 6th lap there was a noticeable decline in my handling skills. The mind just starts to wander at that point so I had to really concentrate on the trail. I have done much longer rides than this on the road bike, but the Knob has a way of really beating you down.