Darkhorse 40 & my Selma

Earlier today I raced the Darkhorse 40 near Stewart int'l airport in Newburgh, NY on my new Selma. I was one of 389 participants in various categories that was treated to the 98% singletrack course. The course was a blast to ride. It had a little bit of everything, and was mostly very tight and narrow so you had to stay focused 100% of the time. I managed to clip a few trees and have the marks to show it. Many racers DNF due to crashing in to trees and hurting themselves or their bike, breaking chains, slashing tires, you name it, it happened. I saw LOTS of bikes limping back to their cars.

I raced in Single Speed cat 1 which is the most competitive single speed category. The race director said the category was stacked with a few pros mixed in to make things interesting. To make things even more interesting, the fastest overall single speeder, including the lower category as well, won a Niner carbon fork along with their payout for taking first place in their respective category. Ok, I'll cut to the chase. I got first place in my category, and am a now proud owner of the ultimate weight weenie 29er carbon fork. I entered this race jokingly saying I was doing it to win the fork, and lookie now, I got myself a 500 gram carbon fork coming my way! I also finished 3rd place over all so would've placed in the Pro geared category as well. I got $200 cash and the $400 voucher for the Niner carbon fork. Yeah!

The Selma kicks butt. It is everything I hoped it would be. Fast, agile, lightweight, quick handling, and very stable on steep, sketchy descents. The ride quality is quite tolerable, perhaps not as smooth as the Inbred was, but I was riding so fast and getting the crap kicked out of me with my carbon rigid fork so I can't say today's race is the final judgement for the comfort rating.

So, I'm pretty beat so keeping this short. Until next time! O yeah, next up Shenandoah 100 over Labor Day weekend!