Picture by MTB Girl (Brittany Nigh). Matt Gehling proved to be excellent company/competition.

Iola was stop #1 in the Wisconsin Off Road Series (WORS). This course is a racer and crowd favorite due to its fast flow along with some abrupt climbs and descents. I did miss out on two WCA road races but there is something to be said about focus. I'm still 100% into racing WORS, but also spend enough time road racing to understand...

Some standout performances of CFF athletes at Iola included two in the top 15 of Sport overall (top 3 in their age groups), another as age group winner, and a top 5 in the newly formed 50+ Open. A few others struggled a bit but rest assured that their commitment along with my help will get better results in the not so distant future. And, we all have to remember that there is much more than race results when it comes to "enjoying the ride". We all need to connect with our fellow racers, teammates, friends, and family to the extent possible in order to truly enjoy a race weekend.

My Iola recap: 9th overall and 1st in age. A good start but a near miss in pile up #1 followed by choosing a line to pass that had me hit a hole and adjusted my seat tip down 10 degrees. 1st and 2nd laps had the seat adjustment problem getting to me mentally letting the race go by. A good (mental) recuperation in laps 3,4,5 produced increasingly faster lap times. My body worked very well considering.