BACKYARD RACE
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What could be better to do on such a beautiful day than race and ride your bike?
I took this after the race on my way home. What a day! |
Before:
Not everyone has a big backyard and some people might not even know someone with a big backyard. Furthermore the percentage is made smaller by those backyards that have an awesome single track mountain bike course! This past week I had got an invite to the Golden Eagle Dirt Classic put on by the Golet family. For me quite the honor since I consider my cycling skills to be fairly minimal and I'm pretty anti-social (you'd be pretty hard pressed to find someone in the cycling community to put my name to my face - I guess that's what happens when you do the vast majority of your riding in the dark). Luckily my mother in law was in town to watch my kids so I could go and race. But there was one conflict: My "training" schedule. I have been trying to ride ever day and climb three to five thousand feet every ride for the month of January and going to the race would put a damper on my days leading up to the race. Instead of ruining my schedule I actually was able to take some really easy rides a couple days before the race and I decided that I would only race the first half hour then take pictures the rest of the race and then go on a long ride after the race. Another reason I figured a half hour would be quite nice is because all I really wanted to do was try out the track that Greg has in his backyard since I follow him on strava and see him digging trenches with his bike around the course quite often. The other reason a half hour for me was good was because of the people who were also on the track. I don't know the guys but I know who they are and know that they are quite fast and on a fairly short course (.7 miles) I could cut the times I was lapped down by cutting down my time on the track.
Day Of:
So Saturday morning I set out to my first mountain bike race on my 31lbs beast of a mountain bike, which I've only owned for three months, with an extra 10ish lbs of camera equipment and other cycling supplies I take along for longer rides. After making my way down the canyon (seeing more cyclists on this route in the 9 min decent than I've seen all year on my early morning rides) and on to the climb up the other side I was passed by quite of few vehicles with bikes - mountain bikes. Even though I'm fairly antisocial there's something about seeing other cyclists that makes me feel good. In my short time since getting "into" cycling (2 years) I have come to the conclusion that the majority of cyclists are "good people." Maybe it's just that we share a common love for spinning our legs in little circles for hours at a time or maybe it's the de-stress effect you get from being outside and exercising that makes me feel like I'm amongst good people. Either way, in going to cycling events I can be pretty sure that there will be plenty of nice people on location. I was not disappointed upon arrival. There were probably already 20 plus riders either getting to know the course or getting to know each other. I grabbed a number signed in and introduced myself to Greg. Then did a few laps around the course which for me was daunting. I don't think I'd ever ridden a berm and there were berms a plenty. All of the downhill I was hanging on and steering for dear life but was quite happy when there was an uphill section. My first time across the bridge or should I say on the bridge I realized I didn't get a straight entry onto it and had to bunny hop off. Luckily it's only about 2 ft. off the ground so upon landing I didn't crash or have to dismount. After doing some laps I hung out for a bit, a few words were said before the race, everyone lined up, and the race was on. My time in the race pretty much went like it did in getting to know the course (crazy going down, happy going up) only progressively better. I did my best to get out of the way for the fast guys and just ride and have fun. I discovered that I am a decent climber because it was fairly easy for me to keep up or pass people on the uphill sections though I hesitated to pass a few time knowing that the downhill was right after and I wasn't out to have others sitting behind me. It was definitely a huge learning experience. After riding for a little over a half hour I climbed off my bike grabbed my camera and started to shoot. With something like 40 riders(I think every local bike club was represented) on a 0.7 mile course there was always someone to take pictures of. I had fun and took LOTs of pictures. When the race was over I said my thanks for putting on this great event, packed my camera bag back up and headed home to my kiddos (taking the long scenic route). After I left there was a kids and others(those just wanting to ride around) race and a BBQ! The winner of our race was none other than Greg Golet himself (I don't think anyone can truly claim he had home court advantage because he'd probably beat them anywhere). Something I thought was really impressive were the medals made and given out for the winners.
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| Besides these awe inspiring medals for the A/B and kids top finishers the Women 1,2 and 3 got gift cards AND there were other prizes for standing out in some way i.e. awesome facial hair, vintage style etc. |
And now for some of the pictures I took. I took something like 200+ pictures and these ones made the cut to be edited because I liked them. I hope you like them too. Some of them are uhm... more artistic.
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| Pre-race chatter going on while the bikes sunbathe. |
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| This was actually a cool segment of shots. 79 (riding a fixed gear) was being passed when this guy jumped over and gave him a good push launching him forward and avoiding the pass. (the picture was a lot more green but I took care of that so the people would be the focus) |
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| Three riders screaming downhill. |
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| No school like the old school! '85 Specialized Stumpjumper - The chain broke right before the race, luckily mountain bikers come prepared and a spare was on hand. |
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| The Man (or Beast) of the Hour |
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| Just liked this one. |
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| Mountain biking in the canyon on a beautiful day. |
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| Fun in the sun - Mountain man. |
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Shredding
SHRED: Negotiating trails with sufficient speed and elan to evoke awe in fellow riders or onlookers. Doing it with a higher-than-usual level of expertise. |
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| Can you see all 7 riders? This shot didn't take much editing at all so you get an idea of how nice it was. |
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| Draped in original GEDC Eagle apparel and handling the new tree feature for this 2nd GEDC event. |
Have Fun and Ride On
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