The Dirt Bag Cup, Day 1:
Kanawha Trace Time Trial
Friday, Sept. 29

Weekend ride/race report by Meredith Erlewine

Joey and I headed out of town at about 3:30, and it immediately started to rain. We could see clear skies ahead, though. We stopped at an IGA for some food and made it to the meeting spot in plenty of time to fiddle with our bikes and ride around some.

Mandi Riddle and I went out for a little warm-up, and bumped into a big pack of riders headed to the meeting place. We were excited to see another girl participant: Betsy Shogren! We knew Kim Broughton was coming, too, so that meant four ladies.

At the race meeting I discovered that much of the weekend's time on the bike would require navigational skills, and Mike Boyes handed out mini cue sheets that we zip-tied to our handlebars. We would need to refer to that during the time trial.

The group rode to the start and then headed into the woods at 10-second intervals. Betsy had brought her single speed Gary Fisher Rig, which didn't help her on the super-steep climbs. Mandy started right after Betsy and quickly passed her. I made a couple of minor navigational errors but for the most part stayed on course. Just before the finish line I realized I was catching up to Betsy and then there was an extremely confusing "sprint" for the finish as she and I tried to figure out what 20 guys were yelling to us from across the creek. It just sounded like "Go go go" but we didn't know if we were supposed to run through the creek or across the bridge. I screamed "Which way????" and they screamed "Any way!!!" Finally Betsy went through the creek and arrived at the finish shortly before I made it across the bridge.

We then waited for the rest of the finishers, and eventually figured out that Kim had gotten lost. Later we found out that she never got a cue sheet! Kim had made it off course and back to the car thanks to her own smarts. After a cold wait in the parking lot we headed back to Paul and Kim's for dinner and hanging around.

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