I peeked out my window Sunday morning and saw that the sun was shining! Not to be fooled though, I packed my cool weather gear and headed out to the race site. Sure enough, the wind was blowing and it wasn't quite as sunny by the time we got there. Standing around waiting for the start I needed all the clothes that I had and then some! I also knew that as soon as we started "racing", I would probably be overdressed.

This was a radically different course than any I'd ridden before. Sandy Sanborn, Tom Bosch, and Gary Larsen laid out a really cool mix of climbing, technical riding, downhill, and warp-speed capable singletrack. When we started off I went into my usual sludge mode and by the time we got to the bottom of the Hike-a-Bike wall the tops of my legs were crying out in (lactic acid)pain. We skirted the "wall" and wound our way onto the new singletrack. B-b-b-u-u-u-m-m-m-p-p-p-y-y-y! A couple grades above butt-ruff. I had watched my chase racer (Diane Rimple) ride away from me and thought that I didn't have a chance of catching her. Fortunately, she was still within the limits of the horizon by the time we got to the bottom of the new singletrack and headed over towards the Ayers Rd crossing. I made up some time on Diane and caught her (probably the only time I ever will) at the little singletrack climb up from Ayers Rd. The next section before "Hell's Canyon", I rode as fast as possible. Made it through "Hell's Canyon" without too much trouble although the little rock track almost ate me alive. It sure helped that I'd pre-ridden the new course on Friday. After climbing out of "Hell's Canyon", we were on the warp-speed singletrack, and I put the hammer down. I had this fear that Diane would be climbing up my rear wheel at any moment.

By the time I made it back through the start area, I was in my usual place ... between the front and the back "packs". I didn't see anyone else that was within striking distance the whole second lap. By now I was wishing that I'd brought along a gel pack to suck down. I was starting to hurt a bit and didn't seem to have a whole lot left. Nothing to do but soldier on. I was almost to the horse parking area and starting to downshift for the turn when I had my first inkling of a problem. I was stuck in 6th gear. Something was seriously wrong with the derailleur but I could still pedal so I cursed a bit and made it back to the finish without anyone catching me. That last little section hurt more than the whole race did!

Final tally for the day: 11th place overall in the Sport Division and one toasted rear derailleur. Guess I get me a new one (heck, the old one was only 9 years old!)

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