Well yet another century ride to report on. In the end this race was most enjoyable and very uneventful. This is a very good thing however and much anticipated by me all year. There are no epic crashes to report on, no disasters with ripping tires and having 5 punctures and also no stuff ups with preparation and nutrition.
The race started at just before 7am down here in Redlands on Sat 13th June. It headed up the big local mountains doing a big loop around Big Bear Lake over Onyx Summit (from the other side) and back down into Redlands on the highway I am familiar with (due to training and the Breathless Agony Race). All in all it was 101 miles long with at least 9000ft of climbing (160km and 3000+ meters). It was just myself as Derek was at a wedding and I went out there with few expectations on myself, except wondering if I could break 6hrs. Anyway other than getting a little lost on the way to the bottom of the hill in the mist and drizzle all went well. I rode all but about the last 5 miles by myself where two of us worked together. I kept catching people that were slower because the 9 people that bet me either started before me or too long after me. Therefore there was noone my speed to ride with. I really enjoyed it though especially when we broke through the cloud layer at about 2000m just before the rest stop at Snow Valley. The ride around Big Bear and down to Angelus Oaks was clear and perfect temperature wise.
So in the end after slamming it down from Onyx Summit in the fastest speed I have ever done from up there because I had a sniff of getting in under 6hrs I made it in 5hrs 57mins. I was pretty happy and inhaled a bunch of food at the BBQ afterwards to replace what I had burned up. In the end I got 10th out of 311 males starters. I was stoked with this especially cause I just rode my own race and felt good (relatively speaking) that evening and the next day. Man who would have thought aye. To think for years I refused to get a road bike let alone actually race one. Now I can even do pretty well at these events. Very cool. But just to let you know. Dirt is still where its at ;-)
So now I only have 2 more races planned. 2 more XC races. I am coming 4th in the Series (SoCal State Series) so hope to hold that position in the races coming up at Rim Nordic and again at Big Bear. After that I look forward to some downtime in terms of training and just getting out riding my mountain bikes to have fun and explore new trails.
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