Warm up, Stretch, Race

Today, the mountain bike season officially started for us out here on the west coast (for me at least). First off, I would like to throw huge props out to Lisa (owner of Auburn Bike Works) and Sean Allen (local MTB rider) for making the 16th Annual Cool Mountain Bike Race a spectacular event once again. Year after year, these two, along with the help of many volunteers, do a magnificent job. This year three bikes were raffled off along with thousands of other bike stuff. The organization, location, and great prizes will usually draw huge crowds that include some top pros.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect along with the trail conditions. Cool typically floods when anyone within a mile takes a leak in the bushes causing a muddy mess for all participants and spectators. Not the case this year due to the sunny skies that have blessed us the last two weeks. Riders had to navigate just a handful of water crossings and a few muddy sections. Fast is the way to describe this year’s course.

My goals for this race was to treat it like a hard training ride, whatever place that puts me in I would be happy with. From the start, I pushed hard to get myself away from the bumping and grinding that seems to happen until the riders get separated. Soon, I found myself all alone and not really knowing who was in front of me or who was behind me due to the large number of riders at the start. Shortly, I was picking off riders from the previous wave start with ease. At this point I was feeling really good. It wasn’t until after the first lap that I realized I might be near the front of my class. So I kinda threw the whole training ride to the curb and started pushing myself to the point of nausea. When the race was all said and done, I got a podium finish even after bumping up a class this year. Twenty minutes off last year’s race. Finally starting to see a marked improvement come from all the training put in this winter.

One very cool part of the race is the tiny bike class. This class is filled with local freeride/dirt jumping/down-hilling/urban/non-racing riders who would rather goof off than put on Lycra and race. The rules, bikes must have 16 inch wheels and cost no more than $40. They ride ½ lap and try to consume as much alcohol as possible in that short time frame. I hope to participate in this class soon if I could just convince my breathtaking wife to drive me home.

The Chef and Big Cat were unable to race this year due to some nagging injuries and a few nasty crashes. I hope to see them out on the trails soon.