Shawn Miller, 6th, Mountain Bike Challenge #2

Guys, loved the stories from the wind-fest at Snelling yesterday. Way to go to all who sucked it up and put themselves out there regardless of results. So as not to give the impression that those who were not there simply had our feet up, I thought I'd let you now that DBC Masters riders Eric Zeigler and I decided, I'm not sure why, that the MTB race in Folsom would be the better option. I didn't even know that EZ was there until I saw the results sheet this morning and his name was on it. This is amazing in that he was likely in my start group, perhaps the one right before, but given the conditions you didn't see much after the first 200 meters.

Rolled in at 8:00am to 20-30 mph winds and horizontal sheets of rain. Got signed in and warmed up on the trainer under the limited cover of the 4-runner rear door. Thank god for that door and the ipod which kept me sane. Tricky conditions for clothing selection but went with a simple base layer and believe it or not the thermal jacket (right call btw), bibs, knee warmers and a nice compliment of warming cream from Belgium that the wife put in the stocking this year, good stuff.

We started at 9:00am and immediately the field started to shatter as we were rolling along the west shore of the lake with a howling wind coming off the water and rain with it. I was able to jump in the front group and just hang on for dear life as about 12 of us separated from the group. Once we hit the end of the beach-side road we swung out of the wind and back around onto single-track where things got interesting. The rain was pounding and visibility was not great with limited lines and a tremendous amount of standing water and slick roots and grass. I snuck up a couple places and hung in on the main climb up to the ridge line. The course was very wet but traction remarkably good up top. At the crest of the climb I was about 8th and thought, oh yeah, 2 miles down only 19 to go, yeehah !! The course undulates from sandy single track to "baby-head" boulders that dot the single-track on the climbs and descents with some slabs of granite thrown in just for grins. In the wet these bad boys were like ice in places but I found a nice rhythm and with two others made some tracks up and down around the lake. We came through the first lap dispersed after a jaunt through what I affectionately called the "car wash", a meadow creek crossing that was about 15 inches deep and when hit at speed tossed water over the bars and washed you down but good.

Lap two I had ridiculously good legs and dropped both of my companions on the climb. I started to reel in others and also some lappers or those that were walking. The wind and rain picked up even more and it was incredible how hard it would gust if you were in the open, thank god much of the course provided some nice cover. End of lap 2 I was in no-mans land and started to notice the brakes were really fading. Nothing quite as thrilling as descending single-track switchbacks and granite drops when you can't really slow down. I thought perhaps disc's would have been better, but found later that they were just as useless. Once over the last climb on the last lap I simply tried to keep it upright, i was mostly successful. About a mile from the finish right before the open beach area i overcooked a corner (scan you say no brakes and simply slid out the back side of it. Luckily no harm done and i was up and on my way again quickly. Pipped the finish in just under two hours looking like Karch does when he's been out in the mud all day with his friends. I had mud and sand caked in places I could not believe and "washed" the kit in the driveway with the hose when I got home, leaving a nice little sandbox behind. I had a blast and ended up 6th 40-49 men, EZ was 3rd in the single speed, studly. Oh and when I washed the bike up at home I quickly found out why it wasn't stopping so well, my XTR brake pads (which were almost new pre-race) were gone , in places I was metal to metal, ouch. Very much worth it, felt like a kid again ;- ).

See you all at land park.

Shawn