I felt the race went very well for me. In my wave there were about 200 – 300 bikers all sprinting together at crazy fast speeds with water bottles and brackets falling all over the place. I was able to catch teammate Derrick and suck is wheel for about 60 seconds then he realized that 26MPH was to slow and took off like a banshee and left me in dust. After that first 5 mile sprint I settled into my groove and pedaled and pedaled. I then ran into a large group of riders in the 23 mile race right at the Shaw rd. hike, and was basically forced to walk/run with my bike up the hill and around the corner. Then back on for the descent passing many inexperienced cycle crossers trying to navigate loose sand a mud while going down. Then back on the pavement for what seemed like an eternity for the 5 mile or so sprint back to the finish line. Hooked up with teammate Neil a little bit during this sprint, but his cross bike and his engines where no match for me and he pulled away from me just before the entrance to the park. I ended up with a time of 2 hours and 12 minutes with a 16.2 MPH/AVG and took 53rd out of 92 riders in the men’s 30 – 34 36 mile race. This fell just outside of my personal goal by 4 minutes of being in the top 50% of my class.
Like Jack my father (age 60) is also my personnel motivator and is the biggest reason I do this kind of stuff. He basically schooled me pretty good in this race and finshed 22nd in the Fat Bike category with a time of 2 hours and 34 minutes. Way to go Dad!
Can’t wait for next year’s race!
David Goff