Well, I think I should have read the rules to the Fat 5 before arriving at the event. Found out at the starting line that this race was actually 5 hours and 55 minutes, plus a lap. Geeze, so that made this race that I thought was going to be 5 hours closer to 7!!
Anyway, I didn't let that affect me. I knew I had enough drinks mixed for 6 hours, and I could just use water for the final lap. So 8:30 rolled around, and off we went. Small field for sure with around 15 solo racers. The area had received a horrible storm the day before (that apparently Jason got stuck in during a pre-ride with Mason) so the roots were very slippery. Made the field stick pretty close for the first couple of miles as everyone seemed very worried about falling. I was hoping to grab the wheel of a local rider and find the line around the course. I jumped the wheel of the leader and hung on for the first couple of miles. He was painfully slow, seemingly afraid of every turn. This wasn't going to last so I passed him and off I went. I was able to hang onto the lead for the rest of the day without seeing another competitor and lapping most of the field.
The course started to dry out after a few laps, and the speed on the downhills really picked up! The course was super fast with tons of very fun trails. I kept trying to find out how far I was in the lead for a while, but then stopped even worrying about it and just kept pounding out the laps.
The Stijl performed perfectly all day long for me and I'm really digging the 2x10 XTR.Big thanks to Kenny Palmer and Mountain Junkies for putting on this event. The event was very cool and I hope to go back next year, hopefully with a few of my teammates. It felt great to win again, hasn't happened for me in a while.
Yeah, I was pretty darn tired by the end of the race. Jason snagged this quick photo just after the finish line.
Stijl = Podium
ReplyDeleteHells Yes
Great Job!