Roaring Run

This was a great weekend for some racing for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that the races were nearby over the weekend and the weather was great plus there were races both days. Saturday started off with the 20th Annual Tour De Strongland offroad races at the Roaring Run trail in Apollo. Entry this year was up a lot from previous years with 123 racers total between the three races.

The expert race started off at 10:00 and had about 30 plus racers. It started off fast with about a mile and a half on the rail trail before hitting the singletrack. I had a great start and was first into the singletrack. Then after only a small section of singletrack we crossed the stream twice. That's when we started back into the singletrack. Everyone was pretty close at this point with Gerry Pflug being the closest and the Sprengs not too far behind. Near the end of the first lap I thought that I had built up a nice lead. But as I looked back I was wrong. Henry Spreng was right on my tail. I tried to drop him on the second lap but he stayed close.

The course was pretty spectator friendly but to my surprise I saw Ruth cheering me on. It was nice to see her but wondered what happened. After finishing the singletrack all that was left was the rail trail back to the finish. I looked back and didn't see Henry anywhere. I crossed the finish line first and was waiting to see Henry come in. But the next person was Jared Babek, then Steve Cummings, Rob Spreng, and Gerry Pflug but no Henry.

Finally I saw Henry, but he was running and not riding. What happened was near the end his rear derailleur had a confrontation with a rock and lost. Ruth suffered from the dreaded double flat and wasn't able to finish.
Here's a small story from the Valley News Dispatch about the race.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_586949.htmlI want to thank everyone for the great event.

Justin