mt.biker
06-26-2002, 09:09 AM
I got up there late Friday night, our camp site was hard to find but I found it. When I got the car parked on our small lot I decided just to sleep in the passenger seat instead of pitching a tent in the dark. Dam the RL’s seats are comfy, it was the last bit of sleep I would get for awhile.
I woke up @ 8am to start getting ready and found out I would be the guy starting the race, as I also found out most of my team had never raced before. Well I got up to the starting area to find I was @ the back of the pack because I didn’t get there early enough.
There was 350 people starting the race and I had to get infront of as many of them as possible before the race went from open law (start area) to single track (2 feet wide). When the horn goes I’m pedaling like a made man to make up some distance, according to my mates I made it to about the front of the pack “I’ve never seen someone weave like that” said Doug. Needless to say when we rounded the first turn I was a few people behind the leader.
http://www.chicoracing.com/images/Epic8offthestart.jpg
The course is mostly hard pack clay and it had rained two days solid before the race, it was a mud slide. The first few riders piled up into the first turn so I held up the some 320 riders behind us, too my bike and put it across the trial (like a fence). One guy was about to say something to me, I gave him an evil eye and said “look budy we’re here for 24 hours lets try and keep it safe” he shut up and wait quietly for the 5 man pile up to get out of the way.
Then we’re off again, its mostly technical stuff like roots, rocks, 1 foot drops, down hill, up hill and then some fast rolling fire roads (typical where I can put the power down and make up so time). When I finished my lap 16km (10miles) in 1:12:23s my team was going crazy. If it hadn’t been a starting lap the time would be under an hour, well we were in 14th place out of 96 other corporate teams (the category we’re in). So I go back to the camp site to relax as I have two night laps to do 2am and 4am (so f’n close together its not funny).
Time flies by and some of the team (including me) goes to the start/finish area where there is the chalet for dinner. It’s about 7pm and the sun is starting to set. There’s a live band there playing some of their funky rock (not half bad). I find out then that we’ve gone from 14th to 60th place because two of our new riders did 2+ hour laps. Our team was called “team newbie” now I know why, I was thinking of calling it “team rob” and I’ll run the dam course myself and pull of better times then that. Anyways without bitching at anyone (we are here to race) I get a burger and start talking up the girl on our team.
Just as the night party starts (11pm) I get an update saying we’ve slipped back to 72nd place (grrr), any ho the band cranks up the music and they start with the beers (YAY!). Well the “party” is great, I didn’t realize how many cute girls came to this event.
to long to post in one post, read next post too
I woke up @ 8am to start getting ready and found out I would be the guy starting the race, as I also found out most of my team had never raced before. Well I got up to the starting area to find I was @ the back of the pack because I didn’t get there early enough.
There was 350 people starting the race and I had to get infront of as many of them as possible before the race went from open law (start area) to single track (2 feet wide). When the horn goes I’m pedaling like a made man to make up some distance, according to my mates I made it to about the front of the pack “I’ve never seen someone weave like that” said Doug. Needless to say when we rounded the first turn I was a few people behind the leader.
http://www.chicoracing.com/images/Epic8offthestart.jpg
The course is mostly hard pack clay and it had rained two days solid before the race, it was a mud slide. The first few riders piled up into the first turn so I held up the some 320 riders behind us, too my bike and put it across the trial (like a fence). One guy was about to say something to me, I gave him an evil eye and said “look budy we’re here for 24 hours lets try and keep it safe” he shut up and wait quietly for the 5 man pile up to get out of the way.
Then we’re off again, its mostly technical stuff like roots, rocks, 1 foot drops, down hill, up hill and then some fast rolling fire roads (typical where I can put the power down and make up so time). When I finished my lap 16km (10miles) in 1:12:23s my team was going crazy. If it hadn’t been a starting lap the time would be under an hour, well we were in 14th place out of 96 other corporate teams (the category we’re in). So I go back to the camp site to relax as I have two night laps to do 2am and 4am (so f’n close together its not funny).
Time flies by and some of the team (including me) goes to the start/finish area where there is the chalet for dinner. It’s about 7pm and the sun is starting to set. There’s a live band there playing some of their funky rock (not half bad). I find out then that we’ve gone from 14th to 60th place because two of our new riders did 2+ hour laps. Our team was called “team newbie” now I know why, I was thinking of calling it “team rob” and I’ll run the dam course myself and pull of better times then that. Anyways without bitching at anyone (we are here to race) I get a burger and start talking up the girl on our team.
Just as the night party starts (11pm) I get an update saying we’ve slipped back to 72nd place (grrr), any ho the band cranks up the music and they start with the beers (YAY!). Well the “party” is great, I didn’t realize how many cute girls came to this event.
to long to post in one post, read next post too