The results from the Fat Tire Festival in Eureka Springs are finally up, I love to sit down with a pad of paper, pencil, and a calculater and go through the results. I can do this for a couple hours pretty easily. I'm sure most people know that I cut a sidewall about 3.5 miles into the 18 mile race but Stan's did it's job and sealed the air leak. I did have to stop 3 times to put air into the tire, I think I could have got away with just once if I had been more calm. Also stopped another 3-4 times (just for seconds) to reach back and squeeze the tire to make sure I was still holding air, I had all but turned my rear shock off and I was feeling a lot more through the seat post than usual.

I ended up placing 12th out of 27 in the Sport 30-39 class which I am okay with, pretty good place for a tough class and having a bit of trouble. I found some things very interesting while going through the results. I was 11 min 49 secs off the leader, which after finding my avg pace put me almost 2 miles back (not real pleased about that). What I think is really cool is that 2nd-5th place was decided by 1 min 6 secs and 6th-11th place was decided by only 53 seconds. And if you don't count the 11th place then those 5 places were decided by only 35 seconds. That is a battle that I wish I had been a part of.

Last year I raced beginner and placed 6th out of 18 and avg 7 min 11 sec/mile (for almost 12 miles) and this year I avg 6 min 8 secs/mile for 18 miles (and without the cut tire I know I would have been under 6 min avg). There are a lot of positives in what I found, having a faster pace and holding for longer distances is awesome. I think part of it was the section of course around the lake didn't have nearly the climbing that the earlier portion of the course had, but that area was my favorite part of the course. Not because it was less climbing but it was where there was some technical stuff and it was a blast to ride.

Looks like you did a great job considering your cut tire....bring them tires by the shop and I can have the guys weld some armor plates on the sidewalls!!!
Getting ready to leave for Columbia to race in the Show me games tomorrow.....going to get a good pre-ride this afternoon.