50 miles

I haven't been training or watching my diet so 50 mile on a road bike sounds painful. 5o miles on a mountain bike seems like suicide. I am a masochist. I couldn't wait to get my new bike (I'll post more later still looking for the camera to take some pics) out and spend some quality time in the saddle. To give you an idea of what I was in for the 15mile pre-ride hurt. I had two flats and watched Chris disappear more times then I can count. Prepping the bike Friday night had me a little uneasy the rear hub wasn't staying tight and I was now low on tubes. I packed everything up and settled in for the night.

Saturday morning was a little chilly but the Burritos chef Scott cooked up where hot and I felt ready too race after my morning glory. Dwayne was more excited then I have ever scene which got me amped and the Gino from Team Seagal hooked me up with an extra tube and I was stoked. I lined up next to Little Buddy ready to just ride.

We were off and the first hill was a killer 9/10 of a mile at an 11% grade. No idea where I was going into the woods and I really did not care. Rocketing along on 29s with some music pounding my ear drums and just flowing through some rocky technical single track. Life was good. Then I flatted right around the 5 mile mark. I checked the hub and it was already loose. I changed the flat and got the hub as tight as possible. I hoped it would last as I started moving through the long line of riders that had passed me as I worked on my bike. No dice. The hub kept coming loose and i had to stop several time to hand tighten it. I was moving along again and broke the master link in my chain. I had packed an extra one and was rolling again after a gu and some mechanical finesse. The trail was amazing it never let up. Rock gardens upon rock gardens followed by technical descents and leg busting-need-a-rope-and harness climbs. In short I was loving it. I got to the last downhill (the same climb we started on), congratulated the guy I came out of the woods with then dropped him as I scorched the gravel at 30mph. I was getting and giving metal fingers and thumbs up from everyone i saw as i came through the start/finish. Keeven, who had destroyed everyone on his Superior Single Speed flash a million dollar grin at me as I passed him. I was toasted and stoked. I was doing what i loved and have missed: riding my mountain bike. 7hr 18min for 50mile and 103 overall.

I rolled up to a table of buzzed DRJ's who were feasting on burgers and dogs. To find out Dwayne and Chris had both had trouble with flats Little Buddy hadn't finished yet and Scott had bee about 40 min ahead of me. I was bummed for My teammate because i knew Both of them had a change for the overall but Chris was still fast enough to win his division so the we had reason to gorge ourselves on Mexican food later. All in all a good weekend of riding with some awesome riders sights are now set on CW race hopefully the legs come back. see you all out there.