Owen Moore on the start line at the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek
6WC: The 6 Hours of Warrior Creek 24x7: 24" wheeled MTB pedaled by a 7 year old.
Owen first started talking about racing the 6WC last year. When it came time to enter, I checked in with race director Jason Bumgarner to make sure that a 7 year old doing the race would be okay. My plan was to ride with Owen for as many laps as he wanted to do of the 14 mile course. With the okay from "Bum", we got on the wait list.
We lined up Saturday morning excited and ready to have fun. I was a little nervous about making sure that we didn't get caught up in opening lap craziness at the start and getting caught in traffic as we got lapped by the leaders. The main goal was to just have fun.
And fun we did have. Owen ripped along, descending and ripping berms like a mad man. He attacked the early climbs with gusto, standing up and muscling the gear with every ounce of his 42 pounds. He talked with me most of the time pointing out stuff on the trail, asking me math questions like "How many inches are in a mile?", and asking "Did I ride that one right?" after almost every berm. There was little crashing and lots of smiles and laughs. All in all a great time!
Owen did one lap with a time of two hours and fifty-nine minutes. Thank you to all of the riders who had patience with us in passing. Owen gained a new skill by learning to yield the trail while continuing to ride. Thank you to to everyone who cheered for him and offered him words of encouragement. I know the pony tail threw some of you and you said things like, "You go girl!", but rest assured he appreciated all of the positive reinforcement and pushed a little harder every time somebody cheered for him. As a dad, I couldn't be prouder.
I've ridden through numerous polar vortices commuting this winter. I've ridden through monsoon rains and hurricanes in my life, also. While this has shown me that I can endure a host of inclement weather while riding, the suffering is typically short-lived on my average bike commute. Yesterday's Love Valley-Roubaix put on by Cam Fraser and the lovely folks at Blue Mountain Revival, was a whole other ball of wax.
Love Valley was the second stop of the Trois Roubaix series of gravel/dirt road races occurring this month. Where the first stop, Tom Dula's Revenge, was run in mild, short-sleeve jersey weather at the beginning of March, Love Valley was a 44 degree, rain soaked test of will and character that had an over 40% DNF rate with all but a chosen few being satisfied with merely finishing the damn thing, climbing off of their bike at the Silver Spur and parking their drenched, shivering butt by the wood fired stove and contemplating their sanity as the steam billowed off of their clothes.
The sky was a uniform gray color as we sat on the line. As the announcement of three minutes to go until the start rang out, a rider beside me said, "Did you feel that?". You could hear isolated raindrops hitting riders, bikes and the ground. Almost everyone, myself included, reached into their back pocket, pulled out a rain jacket, and in one swift motion we became a peloton of rain jacketed hard men and women steeling ourselves for the task at hand.
I would like to say that I acquitted myself with panache, but this race quickly became about one clear goal for me: finishing. Despite full coverage fenders, rain jacket, water-resistant shoe covers, surgical gloves under long finger gloves and various warm bits of clothing, the near constant drizzle and temperatures in the low 40's quickly added up to a wet and numb body and the race became all mental for a lot of the participants. A 40% DNF rate for the race shows the difficulty of the course and conditions. Perhaps the smartest rider of the day was the gentleman who turned off at the first intersection in the first kilometer and called it a day.
A huge debt of gratitude goes to Grava for providing us with the frameset that is dominating these gravel races here in NC. The Maple Sally carbon frame is proving to be a formidable and agile weapon for drop bar racing. Once again, our team issue Lazer Genesis helmets with AeroShell cover is proving a godsend in these early season weather conditions.
Fiets Maan Racing Team member +Charles Bennett finished a very strong 10th place in the Men's 30-39 category and now sits in 6th place overall for the Trois Roubaix series. I, +Shawn Moore , finished a cold and sodden 15th in the Men's 40-49 category and now sit in 7th place overall for the Trois Roubaix series. Fiets Maan Racing club member +David Clark finished a very strong 4th place in the Men's 40-49 category and now sits 5th overall in the Trois Roubaix series, while club members +Greg Kiziah and +Dennis Lockhart finished 5th and 8th, and now sit in 4th and 5th place, respectively, in the Men's 50-59 category.
Results aside, huge respect and appreciation goes to Fiets Maan Racing Team member +Zachary Arensman who gave his bike to Women's race and series leader Hannah Arensman after a mishap broke the rear derailleur and derailleur hanger on her bike. Zach's sacrifice for his sister saved her race and her series lead. Chapeau, Zach! That is exactly the kind of riding we like to see from our team members.
