Saturday was the our last race of the season, and fittingly, it was the first race for our team 12 short months ago: The Fools Gold 100/50 mile MTB Race @ Bull Mountain and Jake Mountain trails in Dahlonega, GA
The competition this year was much tougher, and the field was about twice as large, but the weather was mercifully mild. We camped close to the start and were off to a great race at 7 am.
The race course is 50 unique miles of forest road, double track, and single track in the most challenging terrain in Georgia. The FM team, consisting of Xtopher, Aaron, myself, and newest team addition Adrian "Rage" Hruszkewycz, rode very well. The results don't really reflect it, but we came to this race as MUCH better riders than we were last year.
At the end of the race season, I feel like a much better mountain biker. And contrary to my expectations, I like mountain biking much more than I used to (I thought competitive racing would make me hate the sport). Compared to other competitive cyclists, Mountain Bikers are more friendly, have a better sense of humor, are more helpful and selfless, are more easy going and are all around better folks. I am not a big fan of generalizations like this but it is just plain freaking fact. Two anecdotes to illustrate the fact:
1. I saw a guy at about mile 10 of this race and his derailleur hanger had snapped off. He was fiddling with his bike and declined assistance as I passed him. About 45 miles into the race, he passed me. He had rigged his bike into a single speed and was pushing the hardest gear on his cassette, and climbing up one of the most insane hills on the trail. After the race he told me that he had ruined so much of his chain that was the only gear he could run (and even that was so freaking tight I could barely turn his pedals with my hand). I have never met a roadie that would finish his/her race under these circumstances.
2. During the last 5 miles of the race, I was trading positions frequently with another racer. We were drafting each-other on the fire roads, but as we were approaching the last mile he started to pull ahead (presumably to break away from me and prevent the need for a sprint finish at the end). We came to a stream crossing, and he didn't make it up the other side. In spite of his extreme exhaustion, he quickly pulled his bike to clear the trail, and as I struggled up the banking where he fell, he gave me a push! Again, this guy is obviously not a roadie.
Maybe that will give everyone a little perspective on why mountain bike racing is so cool. Or maybe it will make a bunch of roadies out there all pissed off. If so, let me have it below...
godspeed
i couldn't really get my act together this season, but i had a blast doing the few races with yall that i could, and was really impressed at how fuckin fast you guys are. look forward to riding with you guys at some noncompetitive event sometime soon!
nicely done all! Kurt- you
nicely done all!
Kurt- you forgot to mention that simply finishing 50 miles on a mtb in North Georgia is a kinda big deal. I hope to do something like that some day!
nice
A sub 5 hour 50 miler is flying on any course, on that one it's just crazy. Congrats on the season, hopefully I'll get to ride with you guys some next year.
great job team
We all shaved huge amounts of time off our finishes last year. We are talking an hour and a half (or more) faster than before. This comes with a caveat: the course was a little shorter this year. Last year it was closer to 55 miles, this year it was a little over 50. The sections of trail that were cut weren't just to make it shorter. The trails had become unrideable because of erosion, horses, bikers, and neglect. Apparently the forest service will close these sections soon for repair. Also, the weather was much better this year. It sprinkled right before the start which helped to keep the dust down on the fire roads. The rest of the race the weather was amazing! It was cool, cloudy, and breezy. The sun didn't come out until after the finish and even then it wasn't too hot. Last year it was 80 at the start at 7 AM! That said the course was by no means easy. The race began as it did last year with a 14 mile climb. There was a total of almost 9000 vertical feet of climbing over the 50 miles.
I had some mechanical issues, I somehow sheared a handful of teeth from my middle chainring rendering it useless. For 35+ miles I had to use either the big or granny ring. Then I lost a bolt from the cleat on my left shoe. This made clipping in and out extremely difficult and annoying. I was able to keep things positive by singing along to my ipod and chugging half a beer from Cody and Hodge (from Addictive Cycles) at one of the sag stops. All things considered, I'm very happy with my finish. I hoped to finish sub-six hours (my time last year was 6:35), and ended up finishing sub-five hours!
I'm looking forward to doing some epic fun rides in places like Tanasi, Tsali, Pisgah, Pinhoti, and Bull Mountain over the next months and competing in a few cross races. Its been a very successful season that made for one of the most enjoyable summers in recent memory.
If anyone has designs on
If anyone has designs on riding this course as a casual (non race) ride I'd be interested. Not sure i want to ride the 50 mile course by myself having no idea where i'm going and no fancy GPS.
most of the trails loop
most of the trails loop around and good maps are available of the area. I definitely wouldn't recommend going solo though. I would like to go and spend all day riding but not necessarily do the race course. We could plan a ride that would spend more time on single track than fire roads.
http://singletracks.net has
http://singletracks.net has a lot of good GPS traces if you want to poke around and maybe string a few together to make a map from.
sounds like a plan
I'm in if this happens, i've never ridden in that area so i'm not sure there is that much i can do to help except tag along.
thanks
thanks for letting me tag along with the FM:Race crew for yet another race. it was a fun mtb season.
**edit - and i have our one year anniversary Fool's Gold whiskey shots. forgot to hand them out Saturday.
I wanted to do this but was
I wanted to do this but was still recovering from a week of mountain biking in Colorado. Also, I had to move that day.
From everything I've read it sounded like it was a great race. On the off chance there is more than 6 days interval between FG and Leadville next year (hells, even if there isnt) I am in for FG09.
If you guys go ride the course soon I would be interested in meeting up with you for that as I havent seen much of the course either.
Congrats on a great year of racing
Raccoon mtn
we decided to ride raccoon mtn near Chattanooga. Maybe bull Mtn next week.
FG Photos
http://pa.photoshelter.com/package-show/P0000lfSaqD5aWI8