"Yo, Ian is competing in the Teva mountain games, in a mountain bike race on Saturday." Andy said blowing out smoke from a tube rip.
"Dude, if Ian can compete, we can do that shit"
I was thinking about this conversation while being pelted by hail balls in the staging area. The were sending the groups off in 1-minute intervals, mens expert followed by womens, mens sport then womens, then at 1:04 mens beginner was off, as soon they let us go it began to rain much harder, oh well I thought, this should be interesting.
Andy and I shot off, I didn't want to let a lead group get way out in front so i made sure to keep up with the lead group through the first climb. It didn't take long to catch the back of the womens sport pack, unfortunately. I had my speed dialed for the long steep climb just before going into the first area of single-track, I was dropping riders like nothing coming up that hill, but a womens sport rider just got in front of me and was holding me up the whole time we were on the single track, luckily this part wasn't too long and I didn't lose much time.
Next was a seemingly never ending climb on a wide ski-trail, I was able to maintain my position with 1-2 of the women sport riders catching back up to me. Over the 7.5mi loop there is over 1500ft of elevation gain, it seamed like it would never end.
Once we hit the single track leading back towards Gold peak it was on, i was loose and fast in the mud, passing mens sport riders in the turns and burning up the rooted climbs. Then came the section with the drop-offs, I came in way too hot and as soon as my wheel hit slippery rock just to the right of the drop it was out from under me and I was over the handle bars before I knew what happened.
I jumped up shook of the mud, did a quick inspection of myself and the bike, all good, a couple riders coming, jump back on quick and I'm off again. I was making good time when no one was in front of me but I kept catching riders due to my fast, on the verge of control lines I was taking, then they would hold me up, at this point Sandy and Hoi are out of sight, the single track opens up and drop the hammer.
The end of the race was an all out sprint, I finally spotted Hoi and a younger rider who had swapped positions with me a few times earlier in the race. there was a short climb followed by 100yd flat leading into a tunnel followed by some S-turns. By the time we hit the tunnel I had dropped the grom and was getting close to Hoi.
"CaaCaaa" I yelled as I entered the tunnel, Hoi turns and sees me as the sound echos all around us, "your not getting me fucker" Hoi yells back.
We got to do a short pre-ride to get a feel for the course layout and know what we were getting into, the last part of the course consisted of a short fire road down hill into a sharp over 90 left hander leading into a slalom course that shoots you out to the finish line.
As Hoi led us into the last hard left turn my front wheel bumped his rear and we both slid around the turn, his right foot came unclipped and as he tried to clip in I was pedaling away, he wound up blowing the first turn and ducking under the rope to get back on track. Once he get back on the trail we are bar to bar and stay that way through slalom course.
50 yards to the finish and we are in a dead sprint neck and neck, there is large group of big rocks that we need to hammer over before the finish, I see Hoi feather his back brakes, I don't even think about the brakes and just lean back and hold on. That's all I needed as I beat him out by a bike length across the finish for 7th out of 31 in my first race, I'll take it.
