Last Saturday was the first race of the 2011 Intermountain Cup mountain bike race series. I tried one race about two years ago and thought it was okay, but never really felt a desire to pursue it further. My perspective on bike racing has changed since then. I'm still trying to piece together why that is. Is it three seasons of cyclocross? Is it taking part in two 24 Hours of Moab races? Is it realizing there seems to be correlation for me between the challenges of a bike race and the challenges of chronic illness? Whatever the reason for the change, I want to pursue more mountain bike racing.
The first race was about 4 hours south of where I live. The beauty of southern Utah is that it usually doesn't get too cold in the winter. So while the trails up north are covered in snow or mud bogs, the trails in St George were prime! It felt good to be mountain biking again! I raced in the Clydesdale category (you have to be over 220lbs) and placed solidly in the middle of the pack. There were 11 Clydes and I came in 5th. People always make jokes about the Clydesdale category, like the announcer talking about free hot dogs for us at the top of the first climb. There are some seriously fast big guys though. All in all it was about 14 miles and about 2000 ft of climbing. It was a great day! Babe even ended up getting raced. A Clyde friend's bike broke down while he was warming up for the race, so he used my Fatback. I raced The Sexyness (my Pivot 429).
