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The inaugural Shawnee Mission 3/6 hour Mountain bike race was held on Saturday, actually the first MTB race ever held out there.  The Slimen team had a great showing of riders including Ty, Joe, Bob, Larry, Kyle, Dave, and Jake.  Dave and Jake truly manned up and did the 6 hour race, hats off to them.  It was a hot and humid day for all and we knew there would be some suffering out there.   Drinking lots was paramount to avoid cramps and to keep it rolling for 3+ hours.  The course included the usual SMP trails with some extensions at the start through a recently mowed grassy area and a powerline cut.  The hottest and hardest part of the trail was the first grassy area as it was at a slight incline, sunny, no wind, and the grass sucked all the power out your pedal strokes.  The rock garden area of the course put a beating on everybody over the 5 laps of the race, but most keep it upright and powered through.  In the 40+ category Joe, Bob, and Larry took the podium and Bob won about everything in the raffle.  In the 30-39 category Kyle got 5th and Ty wasn't too far behind.  The final results haven't been posted, so still waiting for the 6 hour report. Great job everybody on another miserably hot day.  Individual race reports will be posted under the Racing News tab.

The Slimen crew saddled up on the Road bikes for a spin in the Masters category at the Baldwin City Road Race at the end of June (wow this is late).  Dunsmuir rolled up from Springfield to join Big Matt Culp, LT (Larry), and Kyle to contest the 360 team 14 man squad in the 40 racer field on a windy Sunday.   The first two laps of the four lap race went at a moderate pace, but nothing big to respond to other than continual passing of the Cat3 group.  Then the attacks started.  First one came back with not much effort, then a small group got away.  Then the hard attack by Groninger, Dunsmuir bridged up and was able to hang on till the end, who ended up 4th.  Kyle in 11th leading and dropping the chase group up the final climb.  LT finished solo in some tough wind and Big Matt had to call it after fighting the wind too long alone.  Respectable showing by all and look forward to some more team racing. 

LT & KB Sittin' in

Scott up Front

Bob sent this race report from last weekend's race out at Landahl. 

The last XC regular race of the Heartland Series on a course designed to turn out some superfast lap times is in the books.  Erroneous weather reports had us sharing a few second thoughts, but better judgement prevailed and the decision to join the fun turned out to be the right one.  The course was absolutely bone dry and smoother than ever thanks to some
upgrades in a couple of dicy areas, the result of hours of hard labor put in by the Heartland crew on Saturday.  These guys always go above and beyond to ensure a great event, can't thank them enough.  Larry and I lined up against the sport field in our age class and took off.  Larry got a great holeshot, I jumped on his wheel and in a matter of minutes we had a nice gap, the two of us leading the charge for the first few miles and then Mark Krause jumped in the mix.  I took the lead into the singletrack with Mark pushing me and pulling me thru the next 2 laps, Larry just behind in a solid spot keeping the gap.  A blast thru some broken tape took me off-course long enough for Mark to slip past, leading across the transition field, and a last hard effort got me if front again with a half lap to go.  I attacked in the tight entry to Tasty Goodness and got a lead big enough
to avoid a sprint finish.  1st place with Larry taking  a close 3rd in our age class, 5th and 8th overall sport class.  Slimen taking a couple of well enjoyed podium spots in our race, and another top o' the podium spot taken in the Clydesdale race by Slimens very own Joe Houston (cheers and whistles)  - as if this wasn't enough, we were then outdone minutes later when the final raffle ticket was pulled, giving the set of Easton XC One Disc wheels to Larry!  Super damn cool!  Now that my friends, is a great day of racing. ;-)