USFE MTB Race #4 at Hohenfels

So, who is the "Lemans" guy and why did he have the idea to run to a working bike instead of just riding from the start? This and many other themes will be discussed at great length in this weeks edition of "The Saber Race Blog." Or maybe not. This is the 3rd year for the Sabers at Hohenfels and as usual Mr. Kurt Hahn, his Outdoor Rec crew and a bunch of volunteers put on a great event. Originally set up as a longer distance "marathon" type ride, Kurt decided to have mercy on the participants and cut the distance back to a sprint worthy 2 lap 32k race. To keep things interesting, the Event Crew decided on a "Lemans" type start.
Most of the Saber riders got started racing in the USFE MTB Championship Series and had only read about the mad dash to the bikes. We laid the bikes down at the start line, walked about 50 meters away and waited for the green light. On "go" we took off running to the bikes mounted up and rode a lap around the baseball field to sort out the racers before hitting the single trail.
The race course set up by the Hohenfels crew was one of the best, most diverse and challenging courses around. Kurt set out with the idea to set up a course that didn't cater to any specific type of mountain biker:
"I tried to mix the course up as much as possible to give no single type of rider a real advantage. There are short climbs, medium climbs, technical and non technical sections."
Kurt, who is a mountainbiker himself, knew exactly what kind of course to set up and somehow managed to set most of it up on post even taking time to build and groom new single trail in an old training area. The course included rocks, roots, whoop-dee-do's, single trail, fire roads and everything else to make a mountainbiker smile. Awesome job by Hohenfels.
Eight Saber Team riders made the 6 hour drive to Hohenfels to verify the course dubbed "the toughest in USFE" still stood up to it's name: John and Patricia Winn, Chris Vachon, Jeff Heagerty, Brian McRory, Brian Young, Hector Rodriguez and Franci Corazza.
For the Ladies Francesca Corazza took 3rd after her and Patricia Winn took a wrong turn adding about 30 minutes to their overall time. The Men's race suffered a similar fate with the lead pack taking 2 wrong turns then working hard to chase the 1st place rider. Jake Skugrud pulled off a 2nd overall finish (2nd Men's Open) with Andrew Overfield (1st Men's Senior) right on his heels at 3rd. I somehow managed to keep my bike upright and came in 5th overall (3rd Men's Senior). Jeff Heagerty took 3rd in the Men's Senior category after riding the course with a crankset that's about to fall out (he won't listen, we tried).
As soon as we made it across the finish line the kids took off for a two lap race. The Overfield's swept the race with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finish. We're still trying to figure out how they had room for all those race trophies.
Post race events included a Pasta dinner with plenty of refreshments and the opportunity to sneak a test ride on some of the Cannondale rental bikes from Hohenfels ODR.
Saber Cycling would like to thank our Kenda, Volvo and Service Credit Union. We would also like to send a special thanks to Jeff at Spangdahlem Outdoor Recreation for organizing a trip to Hohenfels and making it available to anyone at Spangdahlem to try MTB racing.