What a historic race celebrating its 25th year of existence. I have wanted to do this race for a couple years now and it just never worked out. Finally, this season the XXC fit right into my training plan. I have never ridden any of these trails so was curious about what was in store for me.
The morning started early with a 4:15am alarm. Before long I was out of the house and on the road to meet Donna Miller to carpool from Richmond to Massanutten for the race start. With the forecasted rain on Saturday night, I was glad we had opted not to camp the night before. We arrived in plenty of time so everything worked out well. We got registered and found a small group to warm up with and check out some of the trails and see what this week’s rains had done to the course. They were damp, with some mud on the fire roads. Unfortunately, I noticed some major tension in my headset, not a good sign of things to come! I raced back to the car to try and alleviate the tension before the race start, but had no luck.
Before long we were all lined up and the race was off. The lead group quickly settled and I found myself in the lead group of 10 or so. I felt good through the opening fire road sections but realized my headset would be a big issue. I was swerving from side to side as I fought to keep the bike straight. Not good with all the rocky climbs and descents I knew laid ahead of me. After the first 30 minutes or so, I think we really started to get into the meat of the course. Stupid steep climbs would be the norm for the day. I was disappointed to find so many hike a bike sections. I know I’m not the strongest person out there and I’m sure others could climb some sections I was forced to walk, but having an XXC course where dismounting and walking is the norm just isn’t very fun for anybody.
The rock gardens did not disappoint. They were plentiful to say the least and the rain had left many of these rocks a bit slick. It was extremely challenging for me when combined with the tension of my front end (which only got worse during the race). I was really fighting my bike now and often found myself walking rock gardens which I would have normally blown through, very frustrating feeling to say the least. I wrecked a few times and went over the bars on the ridge line, far from my normal riding style. One bright point was the Schwalbe Racing Ralphs. These tires rocked in the poor conditions we faced! I’m glad I decided to switch to these tires this week.
After we finished the GW loop and returned to the park and at about three hours into the race for me, we joined back into the XC course. The conditions were far tamer here, but I decided it just wasn’t safe for me to continue. While reflecting a day later, I’m glad I made this decision. Your bike really has to be working 100% correctly in order to complete one of these events, and I felt mine was dangerous with the lacking control in the front end. So for me the race was really just a good workout with some nice climbs plus some good technical riding which are often times hard to find. All in all, a decent training day out in the mountains but I can say I have no interest in returning to this race after the stupid long hike a bike sections.
Teamates Tom Haines and Todd Green both hung on to finish the course. Congrats guys, you both rock!
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