We woke up today and got right down to business. Our mission: get a preride in and get some rest and relaxation. Some good food was in order today too. We headed out to check out the Moonstone trail. We found it with some help and it took us up and up. And up. The views were spectacular and the trail was super sweet. Since we really weren't sure where we were going we decided to head back down. It's going to be a ripping descent tomorrow to finish off the day! We followed up our ride with some of Boomer's delicious gluten pancakes.

This afternoon we'll go get our packets and get the prerace briefing. Then it's a good dinner and off to bed.

We(Boomer, Danny, me) arrived at our condo in Breckenridge yesterday afternoon. It was good to get into town in the mid afternoon and have some time to pick up groceries(over 200 bucks!) and set up our bikes. The weather is great here(temps in the 70s). Maybe even a little chilly at night(below 40). We did some easy pre-riding today. This is what a lot of the good stuff looked like today. There were some rougher sections too.
And I anticipate much rougher. Getting pretty excited for the race. The trails are phenomenal, as are the views. Hopefully, I'll be able to sustain the excitement and motivation throughout the week.
Time to get some grub and relax tonight. We'll get another nice little ride tomorrow and then it's race day! Super pumped!

Wilderness 101 Report

To put it short and simple it was not a good weekend in PA for me. The drive up there was long and wore us all out. It was a fun drive with Kyle Taylor, Andrew Sorey, and Ben Gabardi(Andrew Sorey 2 hours before leaving, "hey Ben I know you just got back from a stage race in Canada and all but how about you hop in the car with us and head back that same direction for a hundred mile MTB race. Doesn't matter that you never ride your MTN bike. It's all fire roads anyway." Ben, "OK! That sounds like a great idea.") We all crammed into Kyle's Honda Fit with 4 bikes(all 29) on top. How does 22mpg in a Fit sound? Yeah that poor little engine was struggling.
We did a pre-ride the day before the race. The fire road promised to be fast up and very fast down. Unfortunately, my legs weren't feeling like they were ready to race. I could only hope they'd feel better tomorrow.
Race day: We got to the race site an hour before race start. Nice to actually not feel rushed. My day was going well until we lined up for the start and I realized my Ipod was dead. Seriously!? I know some people don't believe in riding with tunes but it helps me when I'm alone in dark places.
We rolled out and 10 minutes in began the first climb. I was sitting comfy top 25. Then I started tumbling backwards. My legs just weren't up for anything. Basically I felt this way for the next 9 hours. I had some bright spots. Catching up to Sorey and Gabardi was nice. Really brightened the day. But that was about it. I dropped my gels in the wrong Sag, mile 70 instead of 50. I didn't grab enough liquid at the aid station. Things were just adding up in a negative way for me. I was basically pedaling just to finish. Baggy shorts were passing me like crazy(that's never good for the mental state).
If you wanna know about the course: Super fast and smooth fire roads(hit 45 mph). Some super fast single track and some of the most technical singletrack(rocks! which we don't have in MS) I've every ridden(I have done Ouachita Challenge, Cohutta, Syllamo just for reference). It would have been a great course if I was having a good day.
Anyway, i thought I was getting close to the finish. Then mile 101 came... and went. Hmmm? Then a fork in the road. No signage. No good. If I have one complaint regarding this race it was the signage. Some of the signs were right at the corner only. Some earlier forewarning and bigger signs definitely would've helped. A few other riders I stopped from going off course agreed.
Finally, I finished 108 miles after I started. Apparently nobody in our group had a good day on the bike. Ah well. Next year.
Next up: Breck Epic Stage Race