This year the race promoters did awesome and changed the course. They removed the upper sections which get snowed out too often anyways and made the race a two lap 21 mile race with 5400 feet of climbing. Now I don't know how many of you have climbed that much over a short milage but it hurts a lot.
The race began with the weather slightly cool so I way over dressed with a compression base layer on top and knee warmers on. This was in response to being underdressed the previous week in Bend and getting snowed on in the race. The race started out by going up, up and more up. Right after the race started, the sun decided to shine and I started to heat up too quickly. So 10 minutes into the race I tried a maneuver that I wouldn't recommend. I tried unsuccessfully to remove my knee warmers while climbing. This led to me falling over on the gravel road climb and having both knee warmers get stuck on my shoes, costing me atleast a minute of frustration. I finally remounted and spent another 15-20 minutes climbing hard to pass all the people who rode past me while I lay on the ground.
Finally reaching the top of the climb I was so happy for what came next. A fun flowy single track from the 4 courners trailhead. The descent is also used for the Spring Thaw downhill race, which I have raced in the past. It is like riding a roller coaster, and one that I know well. I passed 15 people while descending and didn't have one of those people catch me again. Lap 2 climbing was less eventful but I did have to turn around cause I dropped my fogged sunglasses climbing. rrrrrrrr. Descent 2 was what made the race worth it, I had finally opened up enough space on people that I wasn't having to slow down waiting to pass people. I was railing every burm and catching a little more air than I wanted sometimes.
After descending off the singletrack you have to ride 1 mile on road down into Lythia park, as I hit the cement another Cat 1 racer, Trevor Pratt had caught me. I looked at his gearing and knew that I was had. I race on a 1 x 10 with a 36 tooth in the front. There was no way I could drop this guy so I sat up and got right on his wheel. He rode hard all to the line and I jumped with 200 meters to go and spun upto 150-170rpm with my little ring and passed him by a bike length. In the end it worked out for the fellow as I gave him a 22oz of Ninkasi Spring Reign for what happened at the finish. In the end he seemed happy.
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| Trevor Pratt Enjoying his Ninkasi prize for pulling me to the line. Good things come to those whom I snake. |
Dave Bisers had a blast in the single speed race and is having his form come along. He did have a an issue with his sliding dropouts that made him have to stop but other than that a great race. Lindsay Jones also raced well in the Cat 1 women's race finishing 5th. She was happy with that considering she has been in grad school lock down mode until this last weekend. Another team friend and soon to be possible teammate, Dax Turner, had a more unfortunate race. He was given the wrong number for singlespeed and they directed him onto the shorter Cat 2 course. He was bummed but got a free shirt, pint glass and free entry into the race next year. Also he won an ice cream cake afterwords, which was delicious.
After the race, was good times with food and lots of raffle prizes. I walked around and handed out 22 oz of Ninkasi to racers, compliments of my sponsor. I also gave a case of beers from Ninkasi for the race promoter to hand out. This brought a lot of smiles to everyone. Personally the raffle worked out great for me, I one a Thompson seatpost, grips and chain lube.
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| A racer receiving his Ninkasi Beer |
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| Dax at the ghetto camp |
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