Rough Rough Rough, in a nut-shell. This was my first NUE race of the season and with so few long rides due to rain and cold I had no great expectations other than to give it my all. The race starts with a 1 mile 12% gravel road climb before dumping into 74 miles of single track. Having pre-rode the first 5 miles I knew it was important to be at the front or suffer a lot of wasted time trying to parade through with slower riders. At the gone I went off hard, climbing just behind the lead group. I knew I could get to the front group, but was continent to stay off the rev limiter so I would feel good when we hit the single track. My plan worked well as the gap from the front group and those chasing was large enough to let me ride through the single track without getting bottled up. The first 25 miles were so rough and hard I started to have doubts as to weather or not I could finish, but I got a good piece of intel that the course smoothed out and we would not be repeating the previous death march, once I had that news I was good to go. I only had one mishap during a stream/river crossing when my wheels slipped out from beneath me and I found myself laying in the river. For most of the day I didn't see another rider making pacing hard, but the ride kinda fun, like a big trail day. At the end I was 13th in 7:30. Only 1/2 of the 75 in our field even finished so I was pleased to have at least made it to the end. Next up Mohican.
Great views, just had to remember that some drop offs are to big for even 29in wheels.
The Views from our cabin, hard to tell but we are a couple hundred feet off the valley floor. This is where we cleaned and wrenched on bikes the day before never liked cleaning bikes so much.
Rough Rough Rough, in a nut-shell. This was my first NUE race of the season and with so few long rides due to rain and cold I had no great expectations other than to give it my all. The race starts with a 1 mile 12% gravel road climb before dumping into 74 miles of single track. Having pre-rode the first 5 miles I knew it was important to be at the front or suffer a lot of wasted time trying to parade through with slower riders. At the gone I went off hard, climbing just behind the lead group. I knew I could get to the front group, but was continent to stay off the rev limiter so I would feel good when we hit the single track. My plan worked well as the gap from the front group and those chasing was large enough to let me ride through the single track without getting bottled up. The first 25 miles were so rough and hard I started to have doubts as to weather or not I could finish, but I got a good piece of intel that the course smoothed out and we would not be repeating the previous death march, once I had that news I was good to go. I only had one mishap during a stream/river crossing when my wheels slipped out from beneath me and I found myself laying in the river. For most of the day I didn't see another rider making pacing hard, but the ride kinda fun, like a big trail day. At the end I was 13th in 7:30. Only 1/2 of the 75 in our field even finished so I was pleased to have at least made it to the end. Next up Mohican.
Great views, just had to remember that some drop offs are to big for even 29in wheels.
The Views from our cabin, hard to tell but we are a couple hundred feet off the valley floor. This is where we cleaned and wrenched on bikes the day before never liked cleaning bikes so much.
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