The best run mountain bike race I have ever been to!

I know a lot of you don’t make it past the first few sentences in these blogs so I want to make sure I get that point across. Dave Byers put more heart and soul into this event than I have ever seen in my thirteen years of traveling to cycling events. Not only was Dave bursting with positive energy as the snow piled up on race day, but every rider received a sweet swag bag, there was a fleet of support snowmobiles, an aid station that was better stocked than my Mom’s house (which is saying a lot), and a kick ass awards party with enough prizes to make any NORBA promoter ashamed. But before the party we had to suffer… just a little.

Dave was able to keep every detail of the race under his control except Mother Nature. What can you do? Complain about a really snowy winter? If you read my last blog you know the answer to that! So needless to say the conditions were not ideal. I’d say we got 4-6″ over night before race day. Which really is not a big deal for the old Surly Endomorph tire. The problem is the snowmobiles. Have you ever bribed your way onto a snowy late night groomer ride with a bottle of whiskey only to find out skiing on a freshly groomed run is kind of mushy? No, well you should, those groomers are bored and thirsty. That’s what the conditions were like. Kinda mushy. Most of the 25 miles was spent searching for the magical un-snowmobiled edges like a hopeless breakaway who thinks riding in the gutter on the Champs Elysees will keep Thor away. Let’s just say sometimes the gutter was out friend and sometimes it wasn’t. For the most part though the course was ridable with a certain degree of Zen like focus. It’s funny, usually if I go ride for over 6 hours my under seat bag of thoughts is stuffed full. But all I can pull out of my mental archives from yesterday is, “hold your line, hold your line, don’t lean to the right, shit I looked to the right, go left, go left, easy, a little more weight on the left butt cheek, watch out for the ‘bile track coming up, pedal smooth, don’t cross the track too quickly, damn I slid out.”

So you might be thinking now that I had a long frustrating day. Definitely not! I truly had a blast. Like snowboarding on a powder day and choking on face shots kind of blast? No. But a good time non the less. Sometimes we hauled ass at 14 mph and sometimes we picked through churned up snowmobile slop at 2mph. But, that type of riding does it for me and I know that it’s not for everyone. But, if you like to spend an afternoon focusing on your balance and the smoothness of your pedal stroke only to be rewarded with a Togwotee Grizzly Burger and pitchers of beer with good friends you too would have had a good time.

Looking forward to the 2nd Annual Dave!
Race Results