August 5 – Hey Everyone, it’s Mandi.  I wanted to give you an update on Tucker’s mountain bike racing.  On Sunday, July 26 Tucker and I raced our first Minnesota State Championship Series (MNSCS) mountain bike race.  It was actually my first-ever MTB race!  The race was at Elk River on a trail we rode the week prior with one of our friends.  It’s a great single track trail that Tucker felt really fit his riding style.  I raced in the women’s division in the Citizen class and Tucker raced the Comp class.  There is also an expert class but Tucker didn’t feel ready to jump into the expert class his first race.

My race was at 9:30 am and to say that I was nervous is an understatement!  Tucker reassured me that I would be fine and if I was too tired I could pull off after the first lap.  My class did two laps of sections one and two of the trail.  By the end of the first lap and after crashing once, I was toast!  I didn’t know it was possible to be so out of breath but there was absolutly no way I was going to quit…so I kept on pedaling and slowly started to feel better.  I was actually surpirsed to see the finish line and was a little dissapointed because I was finally feeling good again.

At 1 pm, Tucker lined up for his race.  He didn’t really set a goal set because he didn’t know what to expect.  His race was much longer than mine.  He had to ride sections one-four, twice.  I was only able to see him on a few sections of the course which was a huge change for me.  In snocross and motocross I can generally see him the entire race or have a radio with someone giving me updates when I can’t see him.  This made me a little nervous because I know how he likes to ride – wide-open, the entire time!  He managed to finish the race without crashing and to his surprise he finished ninth overall in the comp class and second in his age division!  He got a cool medal and stood on a little podium with the other top finishers.  I think he was prouder than when he’s on the top of a snocross podium at a national!  I even got a medal and stood on the podium for finishing third in my age division.

It was a great day and we already plan on racing the next MNSCS race on Sunday, August 9 at Buck Hill.

On last Wednesday, we both made the trek back down to Minneapolis to race the Thursday night Buck Hill race.  Tucker had an awesome race and got to battle with his good friend John Sandberg.  They were in a heated battle for 6th, when Tucker crashed pretty hard in a high-speed sand corner at the bottom of a big downhill.  Luckily, he was uninjured and was still able to finish 9th.  That’s his career best Buck Hill finish.  Sled Head 24/7 was there filming for a feature on Tucker’s “off-season.”  They got his crash on film so make sure to look for the show on Versus this Fall!

Next up for Tucker’s mountain bike racing…

August 6 – The final Thursday night Buck Hill race of the summer.

August 9 – MNSCS Race at Buck Hill.

September 19- The Fat Tire Festival, Chequamegon 40.  It’s a 40-mile race that he also did last year.

Below are a couple photos by Dana Schoppe of Tucker and I at the MNSCS Single Track Attack in Elk River, Minn.

Tucker at MNSCS Single Track Attack, By: Dana Schoppe

Mandi at MNSCS Single Track Attack, By: Dana Schoppe

Tucker on the podium at the MNSCS Single Track Attack. Sunday, July 26.

Tucker, John and Kale decided to go for a little cruise in rural Goodridge last week in the water truck.