Bloomer Park XC

The Simonster hits 'em hard again at Bloomer XC (MI NORBA)----- The report from Mike is below. Mike Simonson 1st place Elite.

Bloomer Park XC Race

I woke up Sunday morning to the sounds of thunder storms and I thought to myself, “ah boy.” It rained for the whole drive to the park and then let up right when we drove in as if mother nature herself was already weeding out the men from the boys. I did a few laps around the parking lot and it was onto the start line. It was kind of a small turnout with only 7 of us Michigan elites. Robert did his usual spiel, blew his whistle, and we were off. As usual I couldn’t get my left foot clipped in so I totally blew the start. Stewy and Justin D. jumped in front of me. As soon as I got clipped in I threw down an attack. I had a little gap, but it wasn’t long before I was reeled in by Justin and Stewy. The course was slimy and all three of us in the break were having a hell of a time staying on two wheels. Stewy hung on for about the first lap, then faded going into the second, which left me and Justin D. alone to duke it out for the win. He attacked in the second lap on the switchback downhill and got a nice gap on me, but I was able to nail it back on the stair case climb. I let him do most of the pace making for the rest of the lap. Towards the end of the third, Justin whipped up the pace on the railroad bed. I knew right then I needed to sit on his wheel until he was done. Right when we got to the little sidestep climb in the middle of the railroad bed, I passed him and then I whipped the pace up. He held on until the sledding hill, then I attacked really hard one last time and popped him off my wheel. I continued to stretch the gap on lap four, then just went on auto pilot for the rest of lap 4 and 5 to take the win. At 2hrs 33 minutes, it was kind of long for an XC race, but it’s good to do a tough long one every once and a while.The fuel 110 rocked the house and performed flawlessly. The Bells Beer I drank after the race performed flawlessly as well, but that’s another story.