I haven't raced my mountain bike since I was 12 years old. However I had a choice this weekend of driving 4 hours to central California, sleeping a restless night in my cold car and then doing a road race at 7am. Or I could sleep in my warm bed, wake up at 8am, drive a leisurely hour and race my mountain bike at 11am. The decision was pretty easy, but then it started hailing.
However when I woke up at 8am to do the said race, there was a foot of snow outside my window. A foot of snow in Truckee California would mean there would be several inches of rain in Fallon Nevada.
Rain mixed with dirt makes mud, and there was a lot of rain and dirt to be mixed. With this in mind, I assumed the race would be fairly selective with many people withdrawing because of the cold, mud and technical issues. So I warmed up fairly hard on my trainer assuming I would go from the gun.
Everything went to plan as I charged off the start line with two other guys and we put the hammer down on the flat half-mile jeep trail before the single track. By the time we turned on to the single track, we already had a significant lead against the rest of the field. When we started climbing, I was able to ride away from the two riders that were with me. From there on out, it was all about maintaining a hard pace and extending my lead. At this point in the race the rain turned to hail
I charged as hard I could on the first lap with my heart rate staying around 185-190 bpm for 45 minutes, then fell into a rhythm that I could sustain through the second lap.
The climbs were extremely steep, and the slick mud forced you to run up them with your bike. The ride back down the climbs were really hairy and I almost launched myself off the trail and down a steep embankment several times. On the second lap, the mud had become so thick that you would sink with each step on the run-ups. The run-ups became struggle-to-walk-ups. My shoes turned into 20-pound mud boots and my bike gained 50-pounds in mud weight on the tires and frame.
By the time I crossed the finish I had at least a 5-10 minute lead over the next rider. I had collected my first-place ticket and started changing before I saw any other riders in my class roll in.
I won $75 which paid for my gas, entry fee and car wash for my bike. The funniest part about the whole race is that I forgot my bike shorts at home. For some reason I was wearing nice black dress pants to the race, and ended up rolling the cuffs and riding in those. They were completely trashed by the end, covered in red, Nevada mud.
Article was last edited on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 @ 3:37 PM
