Singletrack Stampede 2008 (Reimers Ranch)

Three days before: My head cold had officially finished migrating to my chest. 24-7 Nyquil/Dayquil rotation.

Two days before: I landed my back on a rock during pre-ride sending nerve pain from there all the way down to my heel. My ongoing MCL strain in my right knee flared up on the second lap and I soft pedaled back to the car.

Morning of: My front brake wasn't releasing on one side no matter how much I futzed with the tension screw. A neutral mechanic declared the bushings shot and he coaxed it back to life by fire-hosing it with lube.

Five minutes after the start: The rider sitting in fourth went for a quick pass, taking me off guard. We tangled bars and I went down hard superman-style. My hand pump went flying out of my pack to who knows where and I got back on. I coughed some phlegm onto the ground for good measure.

One minute after that: I realized nothings shifting or breaking because my bars had spun 360 degrees. I stopped to fix it and got going again having dropped from third to about twenty-fifth. The front brake was jacked again and my handlebars were about 15 degrees off center.

One hour later: After slamming into a tree, endo'ing in a rock garden, and some passing (just a bit) I'm up to fifth position directly behind the rider from the bad pass at the beginning of the race. I overtook him with a quarter mile to go and finished fourth - one second ahead of him.

Metallica's cover of Stone Cold Crazy stuck in my head.

In case you're curious, third place was two and a half minutes ahead of me at the finish. Sweet trophies too! Congrats to Eric for taking the win. We tried like heck to jinx him at the start.

So as you can maybe see, the stars didn't quite line up for me on this one. No matter. Bike and knees and cough aside, my mojo worked. I felt like a mountain bike racer, not someone hoping to be or pretending to be or trying to be a mountain bike racer.

As far as the course goes, the rougher rocky parts going up and going down were a lot of fun, but the miles of flat, smooth, twisty singletrack in the second half of the course needed a couple of hills to break it up. The downhill finish done chute style simply rocked.

The whole place had a fun mellow vibe. They brought in a giant tanker truck of spring water. The expo area stayed lively and parking was a cinch.

Ride well.

Drew Richman, some dude, Lonn Hart, Eric Warden, me, some other dude, and Colin Hill in the orange and white.

Notes:

* The biking beauty had her third ride, doing part of the course with me during pre-ride on the Friday before. The skills are starting to show!

* This Tiz Red 2004 I'm drinking right now is awesome. Light, fruity, buttery, and complex without being limp or too sweet. Look for a review soon.

* I don't own a kilt, so I've been doing the bare ass bike short shuffle before and after every race. I discovered this time that wrapping a fleece around me like a big towel spares me all the embarrassment of nudie-ness.

* I banged my kneecap pretty hard in one of the crashes. The knee's been getting ice and the Yeti goes in for tlc at Bike Barn tomorrow. It's making odd clicking sounds around the bottom bracket.

* I'm up to episode four of The Wire's fourth season. High freakin art man.