Rocky Hill Round-up XC Race

Saturday-Sunday, November 7-8, 2009
Smithville, TX

Showed up around 9am to setup the GT Dirt Coalition tent and team area and get in a pre-ride at ten with some friends. Just as we were finishing up prepping to ride, Jason Sager and his team-mate Adam Snyder rolled up in their Dodge Sprinter full of Edge Composites mountain rims. Very nice carbon MTB wheels!! They setup right next to us.

We were setup right along the start line.





The trail was in near perfect conditions with a few wet creek crossings. One was hub deep but for the pre-ride we veered off to the side where it just wet the tires. Many of the twists and turns were nicely tacky and we had fun railing them!

Sunday morning was beautiful. They were trying a new format for this race, usually laps of a 9 mile course, they utilized all of the trail system, everyone doing one larger 21 mile lap. CAT3's included. There were almost 400 racers, and they started off with the Pro's, then staggered the CAT1's, 2's, and 3's. My group of about 36 CAT2 40's went off around 9:30am.


I ended up about 7th into the single track and shortly worked my way to third, spent some time as 1st considering the rabbit who got away Mike L, taco'd a wheel, then Chris and Eddie passed me when I slid out the rear end on a wet root after a creek crossing. I tried keeping them in sight but with the candle burning at both ends I couldn't hold their wheel. Gordon caught me on a long climb and I kept him in sight for a few miles, then lost him as well. I was alone in 4th until the last climb when out of no where Kent comes screaming past me like I was standing still. Finished fifth some 30 seconds back from Kent. It was a fine race & the GT Marathon performed flawlessly as usual.

Alamo Golden Ale set us up with a keg. When the race sponsor's beer ran out it didn't take long for everyone to find we had some fine ale on tap in the GT Dirt Coalition tent. Lots of folks had a chance to check out the Marathon, seems more folks like the red expert color scheme than the pro gray/yellow. A few IMBA brochures were handed out and some of the 2009 catalogs perused, and stickers handed out.

Prost!