I entered my first solo mountain bike race this weekend. I always said I would not do solo races since I’m afraid I will take them too seriously and suck the fun out of my only hobby. So that’s why I just do the laid back team races. But this race was in my hometown and it was the first ever running of it so I had to go. A week before the race I hurt my foot jumping off a building like an idiot, I never got an x ray but it sure feels like something is broken, but we have plenty of bones in our feet, surely we don’t need all of them. The pain is all in the heel so it doesn’t hurt much when pedaling.
I signed up for intermediate because I am far from an expert, I don’t even own any Lycra! A few days before the race they announced the course was changed and intermediates would do two, 5 mile laps which was fine by me with my foot but they also announced a quarter mile run “le mans” start which was not going to be fun for my foot.
The course was extremely sandy which added to the challenge, it was at least 3 times as sandy as any trail I have ever ridden. It was not very climby but all the climb was in one spot which made it pretty hard, I never saw anyone clean that climb. I enjoyed it but I was glad I only had to do 2 laps. I raced a steady pace and kept a smile on the whole time and I ended up winning my class and I am very pleased with that. After the race I met some great people and the BBQ lunch was very tasty.
The Wickenburg Parks and Recreation people ran an awesome race. The signups were super easy, the professionals they hired to do the timing and scoring were awesome and they had the great sense to get Kaolin Cosmo Cummens out to MC the event and he is the man, he is a mobile party. The prizes are VERY nice. The flying E ranch were great hosts and all the volunteers on course were a huge help. Next year they want the race to triple in size and that is definitely possibly but they need to get a better loop built with less sand in order to attract more mountain bikers. Setting up a trail head with year round access would help too. I’d hire Kaoiln to go out there and setup some trails!
I also received a PMSF(Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation) banner for Ryken’s fundraiser / bike race next month, photo below, still lots of time left to donate to our fundraiser!
