Night Race and Weekend Frustrations

Well the Decorah Night Race was this weekend. Saturday night turned out to be an awesome night for a race. Clear skys, 40+ degrees, and about 50 excited riders. The race was set to be a pretty good course with an awesome opener up the Quarry Hill gravel road to spread things out, into the prarie of Van Pennen for more seperation and then to the single track of Fred's. Overall I felt my race went pretty well.I rode the new Opti Ti. Only problem for the bike in the race was having no back brake for the whole race and limited front brake. Back brake was spitting oil from a unsealed piston the whole race and left me with a lever pulled to the bar most of the time. Have to see what Shimano says about warrenting it. Sucks! Anyway, I feel like I opened up a little fast on the gravel, but I knew I wanted to be towards the front before hitting the single track because I know the trails like the back of my hand. I ended up entering the trails in about 6th or 7th and the race was on. A group of riders took off and were not seen again early, other than shockey who had a scary crash and trevor olson who ripped open a tire. I was alone for most of the race trying to hold off anyone coming up behind me. I ended up finishing the race in 6th Overall which I couldn't have asked for more. I was sitting pretty much alone at the finish with about a minute and a half bubble around me with no finishers. Garret McCalister kept the streak of Rig finishes in the Night Race by borrowing my spare bike. He did awesome for his 4th time on the trails and 1st at night. On a different note from the weekend, tryed to hook up all the new boone rings I got this past week. Pissed off because the tolerances are off and they don't slide onto the I9's at all. I am going to try and file them down to make them fit. Not happy at all about that, especially with the money that was dropped on them. Great weekend overall though, topped off by the first snow of the season. Bring on WINTER! OUT for now.