I woke up at 5 am to a steady rain in Loudonville OH it had been raining all night but by the start of the race the rain had stoped and it was clearing. The start of the race was straight out of town up a very steep paved road which did a great job of string the field out I managed to stay up front and dropped into the first single track behind about 5 or 6 people. The first couple miles were a mix of fire road, hike a bike and single track, then the fun started the next 20 miles was some great single track fast and flowing muddy and slick with roots and rocky sections. I was in the lead group of five through this section with a blistering pace, when we reached the first dirt road three riders had gaped me and I got caught by a couple more.
My tire choice was great in the muddy single track but once we got onto the road they felt slow, now by myself I had nobody to work with and wasted a lot of energy fighting the wind alone. At about 60 miles in I was caught by two more people and worked with them for a little wile but eventually got dropped, now on my own again I figured it was time to kick it into gear or get caught by more people with about 10 miles to go I pulled back one guy and ended up finishing 7th. The NUE series has become so competitive the top 10 is a great result.