Cuyuna festival & race…, NBA Finals…, good weekend

Great weekend at the latest creation in Midwest MTB’ing. Cuyuna Lakes Recreational Area in the Crosby/Ironton, MN area.

A bunch of old excavated mining pits. No, it’s not the pits themselves where you ride – as the past decades have filled up with water, but rather the rock & dirt that was pulled out of them, (less the iron ore). All piled up into hills & mini-mountains surrounding the water filled pits. At 200 feet in some spots it wasn’t exactly small hills.

Given some good money to bring in IMBA and a professional crew with trail building & stone smashing machines – you got a very unique trail system. I add some commentary on it later – the pros & cons….

Going into this weekend had a full plate of MTB race choices..

-Wooly Race – St Croix Falls, WI

-Big Ring Classic – Wausau, WI WORS

-Cuyuna Lakes MTB Festival – Crosby, MN

With the hype of Cuyuna trails & the chance for activity for the whole family, the choice was clear. Headed in Friday, got in a late ride at 9pm. Road with the entire family Saturday morning. These trails “purpose built” & wide – no one should be intimidated by the single & 1/2 track as I’d call it. (Yet it’s flow, design & purpose built terrain features can still make it a riot to ride for even a picky expert mtb’er.)

Saturday afternoon after naps at the Ruttgers Bay Lake lodge we headed into the Festival – nice time, good turnout. TT races, Red Bull entertainment, world class stunt bike cyclists, and kids races. Perhaps the kids races where the best of any I’ve been around. The crowd really got into them. Fully viewable races - My oldest Marshall, now 6, raced faster than I ever thought he could & won the 6,7,&8 yr old race. My youngest girl Grace 2 1/2 smoked the 2&3 yr old division on her strider bike – the little boys on trikes & training wheels never had a chance. Strider’s really good way to go with little kids like that.

Crazy part is they even coaxed the Mom’s & Dad’s to race… on their kids bikes – awesome. Marshall’s 20” Scott Scale treated me well nailing down 2nd place, but Kate riding Gracie’s Strider was a different story. Trying to sprint for 2 minutes on little bike like that was damn tough, I’d challenge anyone to try. All in all made for great fun & the crowd really had a good time.

Sunday was the Kryptonite Crusher Cross Country race. I was initially skeptical & probably even scared for the first time ever. Not of the competition but of the trails. Take superfast trails, a loose over hardpack tread surface that makes for alot of tire drift…. built on alot very steep hillside ledges. Toyko drift it too much and it’s a 60 ft drop off that’s going to leave more than a mark.

I thought the turnout was decent for the race with some better top end racers showing up. Dan & Doug Swanson of the Twin Cities, who usually don’t need any introduction on their past decade of regional cycling feats – also it was their family construction business who was contracted to build the trails in Cuyuna, Tom Miller who’s a regular MN MTB series top finisher, Pete O’donnel who races for GT bikes, and Mike Bushey to name a few.

The course wasn’t affording alot of passing even though the “s-track” is wide. The start rolled out about 100 yards & part way up a hill to the first entry of single track. And wouldn’t you know the least known of the Swanson’s racing that day hammered ahead of Doug & co. to get the holeshot. My early game & speed in races certainly has been treating me well but now riding in front of Doug is an experience – some pressure? Nah – just know you better be going like a bat out of hell! I was feeling pretty good & doing my best to rip it up and keep up a hard effort -- the hills & straightaways were feeling great but on the cornering I keep wondering if Doug was going to start laughing at some point as I was sliding this way & that. Probably held the pole position for a mile or more when a birch tree jumped out of corner & met me in an unfriendly way. It allowed Doug & Tom & eventually Pete to get by and me & Mike Bushey to chase.

Highlight of the race? yes & no. You see the race disintegrated half way through – no, not the positions of the racers but the quality of the course markings & directions. Breakdown of course marshalling & markings sent Doug & Pete in different direction, Tom & Mike came to the finish line sooner than the race called for. Doug ran up my backside crashing us on a circular section of the course bitching like crazy about race directions. He was pretty steamed like I’ve never seen him, but at same time can’t blame other racers following what they interpreted the course to be – it was happening for over half the race participants.

I don’t know how the results will finally post but the top 6 should have rolled out as Doug, Pete, Tom, Mike, myself then Dan Swanson. On the womens side it was sorta the same Jenna edging Diana McFadden at the finish but having taken wrong turns in the race.

But on the positive side, the trails as a race course where a delight. They turned my mediocre & questionable trail riding experience the previous day into some extremely fun & challenging racing. You had to stay on your toes (or rather the back of your saddle) & keep the reflex time fast due to the speed; as well as have the skill to know how to hit the corners efficiently.

If the race directors learn from this experience and mend some of the problems future editions of the race will not have the same problems.

Lot's of great friends and acquaintances at the Festival. Kyia Anderson who brings a smile to anyones face with her good conversation and encouragement. The aforementioned Mike Bushey. Doug, Dan & their better halves. Dave "I always forget your last name" from Solon. Di McFadden, Curt & Jenn Cline, Ryan Horkey and many others . Lastly, thanks to the organizers for a first time event you seemed to do your best, it no small amount of work, time and effort. Much appreciation goes out to you.

Other note – can’t help but think that Steve Tilford is a NBA all-star (& now Finals Champion) look alike of non other than Dirk Nowitski. Regardless it’s great to see the Dallas Mavericks win. That the fundamental of teamwork wins the Championship over the greatness of any one, two or three players. I gotta have just one basketball bitch however, the b.s. over LeBron James not scoring enough in the 4th qtr – for crying out loud it’s a team game. If he’s not scoring, it’s not like their team doesn’t get a position. The media can be a bunch of idiots lacking common sense. Besides his career shooting percentage is lower than both of his other two high profile teammates Wade & Bosh. Give me the highest percentage of success & I’ll take it over the hype of someone every single day.