I'm no hammerhead racer. I typically do a handful of races every year for the challenge and to stay motivated. But for me, mountain biking is not about who's the fastest or what your power output is. It simply is the most efficient, reliable, and flexible means of back country exploration there is.
My more memorable rides are those where I pedaled for long hours into unexplored mountains and deserts with nothing more than a topographic map and the constant anticipation of what's going to be around the next corner. I'll take that any day over paying $45 to ride around in circles for a couple of hours.
Thad said, there is one race I hate to miss. The annual Desert Rampage in St. George is one of the best courses on the local ICUP circuit. It is always well attended, and it serves as the official kick-off for another season of mountain biking.
I decided I could get more for my money and race 21 miles instead of 14 if I bumped up to the Expert category. This is one class below Pro so I wasn't expecting any great results.
Waiting at the start. I guess I'm the only expert out there not sponsored or on a team. Oh well, I'd hate to give up my new $10 green jersey anyway.
I didn't have a great start. After the initial dirt-road shakeout, I was about 12 places back, and that's about where I stayed the whole race. I passed a few, a few passed me - I just settled in and got comfortable and never pushed too hard. If I'm ever going to get on the podium in the Expert class, I need to get more aggressive.
Above: squeezing through keyhole wash.
My Santa Cruz Heckler felt fast on the downhills and was a bit of an anchor on the ups. I could have used my 20 lb hard-tale, but this course has gotten extremely rough over the years and 21 miles on a hard-tale just wouldn't have been fun.
All in all, a pretty good race - I felt great, just not particularly fast.
Final numbers: 21 miles, 2100 feet vertical in 1 hr 37 min. Good enough for 16th place out of 33.
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7 comments:
Nice Bike Man. 1.37 Hours in the Desert..? That's pretty intense. Nice Post.
Lookin' good in them tight shorts!!
Love,
Wendy Deyo
Harpooooon that whale!!!
nice job fro.
i remember watching you do that race up at sherwood hills.
Thanks, I've still got that sweet action shot you took up there.
So that's why Susie posts on her blog as "Heckler Wife"! All this time I thought she called herself that because she was joking about "heckling" you all the time.
P.S. Cool action shots. And how do you post your pictures so big? I hate how on my blog they are always small even when I choose large format. What is the trick?
You probably passed me there, I raced in the sport class. Brandon Russell told me about you and I thought to say hi. I just saw Brandon yesterday.
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