Finally Cracked the Top 5

Well I was really thinking about not going up to the Big Bear Shoot Race this last weekend on the 31st May. I am still getting up to speed since I had been away to NZ/Aussie. Anyway I forced myself up there (just to look good in the new Don’s Bikes Race Kit….hehe). After disintegrating my alternator belt on the way up the mountain I made it with plenty of time to spare as it was an 11am race start.

The Race went well. It was my second race on my tubeless wheels and still no punctures. Man what a change for me. Lovin it… Also I had my GPS going for the first time on the MTb. I love the device. It rocks my world and seeing the elevation gain always makes the pain feel more worthwhile. Here is me getting a little more technical than usual. Really its the least I can do since I work with maps and spatial data everyday. Embedded is a Google Maps window with my GPS track I recorded. Have a zoom a pan at the very least. For those not accustomed to such high tech things (Dad) switch between the satellite and topo imagery to get a full experience. Yes you use your mouse to do this  :-) The left mouse button to be exact...hehe

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The Course was just under 24 miles long with a fair bit of climbing. You can view all the cool details on the Motionbased website where I upload my GPS tracks. You will also see the last two 100 mile road races and their associated stats such as elevation profiles. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/mtbkiwi

The course itself can best be described as loose. The Mountains up there are heavily eroded granite so the fireroads and the single-track was all very loose and pebbly. Its pretty interesting riding in the stuff with lots of close calls at speed on the fireroads. A bit of drifting action, normally not intended was a constant reminder to concentrate and not look at the good views all around. The single-track rocked my world. Pretty dusty behind people but it was flowing and pretty technical including a mean loose rocky single-track climb which came close to ripping my legs off. All of this race was above 2000m high so as Damien said its gotta be good for the heart.

 

I got home in 4th. I finally cracked the top 5 voodoo in the Cat 1 category in one of these races. I felt pretty good and was only 1 min down on third and 3.5 mins down from 2nd place. 1st place, well he is untouchable. 8 mins ahead and he would have got 3rd in the Pro field. Can’t do too much about him. Lisa did real well winning her class and Al got 2nd overall out of the single speeders. Crazy nutters they are… Good on them.