Crowder wasn't so crowded

Friday, Martin and I drove out to Trenton, MO, where at the Crowder State Park the third of the Heartland Race Series races took place today.
We pre rode the course yesterday and agreed both that it was in excellent shape and super fast.
Only the heat, gave us something to sweat about, but the lake above, was a prime location to cool off after a hot ride.
We camped there on the camp ground and Mr. Whiskers had fun chasing the raccoons away, actually, he would have. Unfortunately, did we have to keep him on the leash. But those little critters were so bold, that they came right up to our table to check for food...
A lot of people were stupid enough to leave their left over food out, so I don't blame them for raiding the premises.
Next morning, did we get woken by the hot sun. It was already so warm at 8 am, that you couldn't sit in the sun to eat your breakfast.
The race would be a scorcher...
We packed everything up and headed down to sign up for the race.
Mr. Whiskers had to stay by the car, so we tied him up in the shade and he was fine with that.
At the start, I realized, that I was the only racer in my class...
I wasn't sure whether I liked that or not. On one hand, It guaranteed my win, but on the other hand, that win wouldn't really be a success...
To make myself work for the medal at least a bit, I decided, to ride two laps a 5.7 miles. They gave me the choice. I came to regret that later, because by the end of lap one, I started to have shifting problems and I couldn't ride really well. Again, it didn't matter too much, but I still wanted to do better and I rode the Intense for the first time and was a bit disappointed about its performance.
Other than that, I think, I did a good race. The course was beautiful. The first 2/3 were really fast and smooth with two really long relatively steep climbs and then all of a sudden, as if someone had picked all the rocks from the first part. On the last third, you hit all these rocks: small rocks, flat rocks, sharp rocks, big rocks, loose rocks, any kind of rock you might want to ride over or not...
Those rocks are actually typical for KS/MO and I like them up to a certain degree=size. It's a good challenge.
After that, I walk them rather then smack into them and that had the advantage that I found someone's Powertap today and needless to say, made her really happy, upon return:)

Anyway, in the end, as predicted, did I make first...no one else there on the podium with me:
I am happy about my "win", but Martin told me tonight, I didn't really win, since I didn't race against anybody....what do you think?
I do have though three first place medals from this race series. I am leading in the points. There is only one more race and I don't think, I can be reached anymore, so I think, todays race was important...

As for all the other NE racers, pretty much everybody, who showed up, made it on the podium.
Martin made fifth in his Sport's age group and for the rest, check out MTB Omaha .

As for having some sport picked out for everyone this weekend, did we pick:

Stick-Retrieving for Mr. Whiskers. He loves to swim:) Good for you guys is that you missed his after bath ritual: rolling in the sand, until his white fur was yellowish-brown and sticky, but hey, after all, we all went out and got dirty, so we all came home and took a shower:)