Last year, I had a fantastic season racing the Wisconsin Off-Road Series (WORS) in the Citizen category. I won my age group, largely thanks to a accruing bonus points for doing all 9 races in the series. I managed to nab first place by a mere 7 points. Without those bonus points, I would have been in solid second place. However, the victory felt a little cheap. I had never won a race head-to-head against the person who ultimately won second place. I came close a few times, but was never able to seal the deal. Overall, I placed 13th out of over 300 men that participated in the series. Sometimes, it bothers me. Other times, I think that others could have earned those bonus points as well. In addition, I was the only person in Citizen Men aged 45-49. Out of 300, only 17 completed all 9 races. Finally, 9 races over 15 weeks is a lot. There’s a lot that goes into racing and training. Not to mention avoiding injuries and mechanical incidents is a key factor as well. Every one of those bonus points was earned.
“Set goals that feel somewhat impossible”
I’m not sure who to attribute this quote to. The first person I heard say it was Sir Lewis Hamilton. WORS is divided into 4 categories; Citizen, Sport, Comp, and Elite. It is encouraged, that if you make the podium in your category, that you should move up to the next category. At the end of the 2024 season, I decided that for 2025, I was going to skip the Sport category and jump up to Comp. Riding with faster riders, makes you a faster rider. Or at least that is what I was hoping for.
In 2024, my average speed around the course at Englewood was 11.8 mph. This year, my average was a full mile per hour slower at 10.8. Granted, I did almost double the distance but I still feel like I could have done better. I gave this race everything I had, and paid for it with some severe muscle cramps later on Sunday evening. Race #1 this year was just shy of 18 miles and had 1,952 feet of elevation. Last year’s race was 8.68 miles and only 755 feet of elevation. My finishing time was 1:42:19. 20 minutes behind first place overall, and 17 minutes off my age group podium. I knew that racing in this category was going to be hard, I just didn’t realize it was going to be this hard. As I’ve said in other social media posts, I’m definitely out of my comfort zone. There were a few times during the race that I thought “I don’t belong here” and “Why didn’t you just sign up for Sport.” but I’m determined to see this through. Its a long season and lots can change between now and the end of the season at the Red Barn Classic on August 24th. I’m cautiously optimistic.
The second race of ten for the 2025 WORS series is Treadfest in Lake Geneva. I had a pretty good race at this course last year and I’m hoping for a much better result than the first race. I know what needs to be done. It’s just a matter of giving it everything I have and executing flawlessly.