Tree Farm Relay

Last updated on July 27, 2009

Yesterday was the 2009 Tree Farm Relay out at Lakeshore Park in Novi, MI. Our team consisted of Nick, Tak, Bill, and I under the name Snatch and Grab with the excellent team number 23 (Hail Eris). While the results aren’t up yet, I think we came in somewhere around the middle to the latter half of the group.

When we first arrived, there was a steady rain, which soaked everything nicely but (thankfully) stopped just before the start of the sport-class race. The first group encountered the muddiest trails, with the course progressively drying out through the third lap. When I went out for my fourth lap everything should have been nicely dry, but there was a downpour which started just after I entered the more difficult single track. The result of this was that I added a good two pounds of mud to my bike, and finished the race completely soaked and mudspattered. For the most part it was easy to tell who hadn’t ridden yet. Those who were still waiting for their lap were clean, and those who finished were not unlike this photo of Marty. Yes, it was loads of fun.

Up above there is a photo of a tube, blown out the side of a wheel. This is Nick’s bike, right after he ran across the line with his bike on just the back wheel. It turns out that during Nick’s lap he first broke his chain, then fixed it. After that, he slipped on one of the sloppy mud corners, washing his front wheel out. Once he started going, 20′ or so later a floowp floowp flawwp sound was heard from his front wheel, and right as he looked down at it the tire it finished unseating itself from the bead and the tube erupted out the side. The result was deemed unworthy of trail maintenance and the last chunk of trail traversed on foot. This was a good thing, as we all got to look at the wonderfully distended tube. Stuff like this is normally only seen in photos, so this was a nice treat.

This race is basically a party. Loads of people hanging out, talking, eating, and drinking both the beer that they brought or the kegs provided by Liberty Street and Dark Horse. There were even shots being handed out at the crater, a feature which is not unlike riding into (then quickly out of) the collapsed foundation of a house. I’m really glad I was able to go. This was a great way to spend a mid-summer Saturday.

Here’s the handful of photos I took there:

· Walking from my car to the race area in the rain at the 2009 Tree Farm Relay.
· A pouty Mike Moss wearing Erik’s antlers.
· My bike, Bill’s bike, and Nick’s bike all lined up with our team number, 23.
· A very muddy Marty after her starting lap on a rather muddy trail.
· Nick had a slight fall which unseated his tire, causing the tube to pop out one side of the wheel.
· My bike, very muddy, after a fourth lap at the Tree Farm Relay during which it started raining.

Here’s two related videos:

· Detroit Free Press promo video for mountain biking at Novi’s Lakeshore Park and the Tree Farm Relay.
· My video of the Le Mans style start, including a bit of crashing and falling.