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This report in from Joe Houston on the last race of the Heartland Series, Trumans Big Love.  Joe has been on the podium all season long, he's doing something right!  Must be the Cake song, I'll have to remember that next time.

Race Recap:

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.

They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank,
Wreck less and wild they pour thru the turns,

Am I the only one that sings this song at the beginning of a race?  

Battle of the Bulge:

As usual, the folks at heartland put on a good race, lots of teams from
around the metro area and other states.  Nice to see team Seagall come in
from St Louis.  They can pound the PBR and nearly swept the Single Speed
class.

Bob sent this race report from last weekend's race out at Landahl. 

The last XC regular race of the Heartland Series on a course designed to turn out some superfast lap times is in the books.  Erroneous weather reports had us sharing a few second thoughts, but better judgement prevailed and the decision to join the fun turned out to be the right one.  The course was absolutely bone dry and smoother than ever thanks to some
upgrades in a couple of dicy areas, the result of hours of hard labor put in by the Heartland crew on Saturday.  These guys always go above and beyond to ensure a great event, can't thank them enough.  Larry and I lined up against the sport field in our age class and took off.  Larry got a great holeshot, I jumped on his wheel and in a matter of minutes we had a nice gap, the two of us leading the charge for the first few miles and then Mark Krause jumped in the mix.  I took the lead into the singletrack with Mark pushing me and pulling me thru the next 2 laps, Larry just behind in a solid spot keeping the gap.  A blast thru some broken tape took me off-course long enough for Mark to slip past, leading across the transition field, and a last hard effort got me if front again with a half lap to go.  I attacked in the tight entry to Tasty Goodness and got a lead big enough
to avoid a sprint finish.  1st place with Larry taking  a close 3rd in our age class, 5th and 8th overall sport class.  Slimen taking a couple of well enjoyed podium spots in our race, and another top o' the podium spot taken in the Clydesdale race by Slimens very own Joe Houston (cheers and whistles)  - as if this wasn't enough, we were then outdone minutes later when the final raffle ticket was pulled, giving the set of Easton XC One Disc wheels to Larry!  Super damn cool!  Now that my friends, is a great day of racing. ;-)

Last night, the Slimen crew showed for the Tuesday night brew pub ride.  All riders in white jerseys, except for our black sheep Brian.  The black jersey brought with it a black cloud of adversity... read his account of the night unfolding.