Mission Project

The Course
In the few weeks before the March 31st race we pre-rode the course a couple of times. Well, sort of, we rode some of the course and rode a lot that wasn't the course. So a "Demonstration Forest" seems to be an area of government owned land that is selectively thinned forest in which the general public is invited to seemingly more liberally to come and enjoy the land. Hikers and even mountain bikers are invited to come visit the land and see if they miss the trees. So where mountain bikes are disallowed in most parks, they are welcome in the thinned ones. Fine by me. The point I'm getting to is, there are fire roads and trails everywhere on Bogg's mountain. So after riding for 5 hours we managed to ride most of the 1 hour race course.

The Camp
Since the race started at 8.30AM, we opted to camp the night before the race at Bogg's mountain. We each had our own tent, Pat slept in the communal tent, the Casa 6, myself the Skyledge 3 and Jonas had the Skyview 2. The Casa 6 worked perfectly for stashing our bike in as we ran into town for a big pre race meal. Ok, so were a bit spoiled in the tent department.

The Race
Jonas led off our team this time followed by me and then Pat. Rinse and repeat, till you puke. So on the first lap I noticed that no one was passing me; okay, maybe one guy, but I coughed up a kidney passing him back. Actually, I was passing a few people. As the race wore on, I started to pass more and more people on the uphill and on the down hill. Both Pat and Jonas said they were passing loads of racers. Perhaps the course suited us better, being a bit technical with more steep climbs. Sure this was more of the beer crowd than the EPO type, but still the laps were around 10 miles with 1800 feet of climbing per lap. Sometime during the afternoon while checking my lap times with Start and Finish, I was told we were in 2nd place, a few minutes behind 1st place. Honestly, the only reason I was checking my time, was to make sure I wasn't the slowest guy on our team. So lap after lap we did our best; I remember pushing myself hard on my 3rd and final lap. There was a bit of "Drunken Master Kung Fu technique" in my descending, barely in control. A couple of corners from the finish line I hit my right hand and bar on a tree in a tight corner. My heart rate spiked and my instantly my left calf cramped up. I forced my calf down against pedal, stretching it out till I could pedal. The rider behind me asked if I was ok. I said something unintelligible and franticly pedaled towards the finish line to tag Pat for his final lap. Jonas finished our last lap as a team doing 53 minute lap. Our fastest lap was by Pat at 46 minutes, our average was 50 minutes to do 10 miles of single track with 1800 feet of climbing.

What it is all about
Needless to say we were pleased to get 2nd place, a significant improvement. But, doing endurance mountain bike races isn't about how you stock against the world; there is always someone faster and more psychotic than you. It is all about experiencing a fun challenging experience with your friends in a new beautiful place every few weekends. Camping, riding, sharing war stories; what's not to love? I suppose I might find out as I try to work towards my goal of doing a 24 hours mountain bike race solo by the end of the summer. Maybe it's the endorphins, but I think I have lost my mind.