Bear Springs Trap MTB Race

Csaba, Naiqwan, Greg and I pre-road the parts of the course on Saturday after stopping by John's for burritos. There were huge sections of old hard snowdrifts across the trail. I could see that many people would be furious at not being able to ride sections of the course. I even thought about not doing the race on Sunday. But I'm glad I stayed the course.

It was freezing cold and snowing a little bit. We piled on everything we had and broke out Greg's propane heater, while we waited for the short track. Naiqwan, Csaba, and Greg launched





at 3 and I (singlespeed) went at 3:30. Naiqwan had a mechanical a lap before the end. Csaba was feeling that hill. (He hasn't be able to ride as much as he would like.) Greg looked good. I was in last place for the entire race until I finally passed a girl on the last lap. That was tough!

Next day:

Completely different weather. It was sunny and warm. I overdressed but so what.

After a confused start, we went off right behind the Cat 1s. I ended up doing 30 miles which was quite a workout. The course had everything;big downhills, twisty singletrack (up, down, sideways), mud (just a little), roots, rocks, smooth, narrow/steep/straight w/switchbacks, dirt roads, etc... To me the race was about pacing myself and putting out a sustained effort over 3-4 hours. Try to recover on the downhills, and hope the legs hold out for the uphills. And keep my focus on not crashing and not bonking. Will raced as well and we got to hang out before the race a bit.

Fergus