Sage Brush Safari

This was the first race of the US Cup 50 miler series. Scott and I prerode the week before and I was ready to go on the new Marin. The course is a mix of mostly road climbs and excellent single track descents; two laps for the 50 miler. The Rodder crew rolled out together in the Eurovan - stylin! Scott and I went out together, pretty hard, but not too hard. The new bike was riding well and things were going smoothly through Wrangler (fun) and Bronco (some hike a bike). We picked off some riders as we climbed back up to Four Corners. I went into the red a bit here and backed it off as we headed into the aid station. Scott got out of there and pulled away on the road climb up to Los Pinos. I wouldn't see him until the finish (nice work Scotty!). Over the top at Los Pinos, down the fireroad on the other side. Feeling invincible on the new bike, I picked up a huge amount of speed... oh, better soak up that water bar. Oh shit, I hit that fast... getting bucked... coming down on the front wheel... too far forward... ground rushing up... ow, big crash. It seemed like it took forever to get going again. Looking at my Garmin data later, it was only about 5 minutes. A bunch of guys went past in that time. Once I realized I was able to ride, I started worrying about the bike. Everything seemed ok, but I was afraid I'd miss something and have another crash. I thought about packing it in - I could just coast down the road to the start finish. But that would be a lame way to go out, and it would hurt just as bad there as it would riding. So eventually I got going again, and limped down to Spur Meadow trail. I ran into Matt at Four Corners. He'd had flats and was done racing, but helped me with bottles (thanks Matt!). The crash took some of the fight out of me, but I hung in. Bronco was no fun - getting on and off the bike hurt. The second climb up to Los Pinos ws a grind too, but I enjoyed the ride down Spur Meadow, what a great trail. Descending Kernan, I caught up to Danny Munoz. This guy is crazy fast, why I catching up to him? He'd had a nasty crash (into a Jeep!) and had to replace a wheel. Bad luck! We rode in the rest of the way. I ended up 8 out of 16 in the Open men 30-39 category. Not so bad considering. Scott finished 2nd, awesome job.