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Nathan Smith
So roadies are wimps. And here's why...I was supposed to do a roadie
race on Saturday 4/2/05 but they "feared" the weather and cancelled the
event the day before. Moping around, I noticed that there was a
root 66 series mountain bike race on the same day. Would they cancel
too? HECK NO! Thank goodness for muddy sports!
So I show up at the race almost scared of what the conditions were going
to be like. It had been raining all morning with the experts taking off
at noon. Only the beginners had raced so the course is probably still
ridable...I hope. I was too wimpy to do any sort of serious warm-up so I
just kinda pedaled around until my race started.
Tire choice was left to whatever tire I had on there from last time. I'm
a lazy UST user. Turns out I would ride half-worn Hutchinson Pythons,
not ideal, but whatever...I'm a mountain biker right?
So from the gun the 19-29 y/o experts (aka The Fast Guys (TM)) take off.
We do a somewhat neutral start to the first big puddle. Most guys went
around this puddle fearing getting wet, oh boy did they have a lot in
store for them. After the puddle I got tired of getting spray in my face
from the guy in front of me so I take off never to see anyone in my
class again.
The course is basically a figure eight loop with some mild technical
sections. The first half saw us climb a soupy/muddy climb that forced
almost all except this ridiculously ambitious pro ahead of me. This was
followed up by a leg-sucking open-field cross. Picture any vietnam war
movie where you have people up to their knees in their water garden.
That's the type of terrain we were crossing.
The rest of the course was all rideable but due to the rain caused you
to just be spinning your wheels wondering when you'd start moving again.
All descents were stream beds, all ascents were muddy slip-n-slides. I
would actually ride through the puddles in a vain attempt to wash off my
bike and end the chain suck.
4-laps and 2lbs of ingested mud later I make the turn towards the finish
line. I knew I had done well and crossed the line 1st in the 19-29
experts!
.nathan.
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