North Park XC MTB

Kirk Morrison and Rich Allen set aside their CycloCross bikes to take in a X-Country Mtn Bike Race in North Park as part of the 2011 Month-of-Mud Series.

Rich Allen - 7th Place (Men's 45+)

Photo by Mike Briggs

Kirk Morrison - 12th Place (Men's 45+)

Photo by West Liberty Cycles

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The World According to Kirk:
After last weekends MoM North Park Cx MUDFEST, Rich Allen and I again headed down to North Park (on Sunday) for a MUCH drier XC Mtb race.  The weather was spectacular with blue skies, light winds and temps in the high 60’s/low 70’s throughout the race.

Rich and I competed in the Masters/Sport race which covered the same 2 lap, 18 mile course (2200 feet of climbing) as raced by the Expert class.

This was a fairly fast course, through some colorful, early-fall scenery. While there was quite a bit of climbing, the technical sections were not too challenging (for the talented riders). I ended up falling twice on my first lap as I experimented with using more front brake on the steep descents (no falls on the 2nd lap !). Unfortunately, I banged-up my right thumb on the first tumble which made rear derailler shifts quite painful. I ended up using the palm of my right hand for most shifts for the balance of the race.