Wow, what an event! Glad I can say that I was able to partake in one of the SSWC races in this world of ours, and in my home town to boot! The coolest thing about the race was that part of the course overlooked the neighborhood where we live and will soon become one of my regular rides. Even better? My sweat equity went into building some of that trail with Trails 2000. 
The start was amazing. Bikes and people everywhere downtown! With spectators and riders combined, there had to be a good 2000 people there! Lots of fun costumes too. Elvis was everywhere, along with lots of tight, sparkly Lycra and feather boas. Tighty whities were in the crowd too, hilarious! Riding with your nuts hanging out of them? Not so cool. Eww!
This 19.5 mile course had 3627 foot of elevation climbing and 3365 foot descending. On a singlespeed this turned out to be quite painful on my legs. Ouch! My SS leg muscles are obviously not in great shape. But definitely an awesome challenge that I’m glad I finished.
The Ridge was a killer, and I knew it would be for me. I definitely need to improve my technical riding skills. It’s such an amazing trail though and has some of the best views of the city from the top. At the top I was parched. 2 water bottles was not enough for this one. It was a bit warmer than I thought it was going to be too. There was plenty of beer, but no water at the top, so what the hell, I chugged 2 cups of beer and carried on. Unfortunately the buzz didn’t help my technical skills at all, but it did take away some leg pain.
By the time I got to the 1/2 way point, I was ecstatic…I’d made the cutoff…YES! On I went through a shower of beer from all the drunks cheering us on. This let me finish the 2nd half of the race sticky and stinky. I managed to demonstrate some nice bike balancing skills as I high-fived tons of screaming, costumed people waving their Oskar Blues, trying to get me to down a cold one before moving on into the 2nd part of the course. Talk about motivation! My legs were tired, I had already started to cramp in several different spots in both legs, and I was parched…yet I got some sort of energy boost from all the excitement.
Up Cuchillo to Mike’s, which just about killed me (okay, that was before I’d hit the climb to the Secret trail). Somewhere on Cuchillo I ran into Dave resting under a tree. He’s a friend of Bendan’s I met at the 12 Hours of Temecula while crewing for Matt. I stopped, ate a few Cliff Blocks and chatted with Dave until he was ready to continue on. At the bottom of Cuchillo, I ran into another friend cheering on the racers. No water, but she had this leftover gray gunk in the bottom of her cooler with a few ice chunk floaters. Dirt and small flecks of who knows what floating in it, I poured it into my water bottle and it tasted wonderful, minus the grit left in the back of my teeth with each swig.
Toward the top of Mike’s I was able to chug down some water from some guy’s water bottle and passed on a pan of cooked bacon. I did have some sliced pear though, which was quite refreshing! I turned down some other “pain management” that was offered to me and continued on to the top of Mike’s. At the base of Secret trail I was able to get about a 1/2 bottle of real water, some more Cliff Blocks, and I was on my way. Oh, I think there was also a swig of whiskey from a bottle along the way there too.
The finish ended with a climb, a roll through a pile of beer cans, and tons of screaming, smiling fans!
I was grimacing as I made it up the climb. I had just been hit with 2 inner thigh leg cramps and I knew the muscles were going to lock up at any moment. I couldn’t stop in front of all these people, so I smiled through it and rode to the finish!! Matt was at the end, cheering me on and convincing me I could do one last pedal stroke to the end.
Wahoo!! Stick a fork in me, I’m done!
The entire town of Durango was out today and hiked many parts of the course to cheer us on. It was so great to see so many of my friends out there. Thanks to everyone for the cheers!
We topped it off with a roaring party at Ska Brewery. I’ve never seen so many people at one place. Basketball between New Zealand and Italy to determine the next SSWC locale kept us all entertained while we sipped our Ska and ate our Zia. What a great way to end the day.
Perfect for singlespeeding, the trails are smooth dirt with lots of climbs. 2764 foot worth of climbing for today, although that includes the little climb back home too. Still, a lot of climbing on a singlespeed for me.
It’s an awesome riding destination, but not something you want to talk about doing while drunk with your friends, lest you get accused of being a pervert. Just ask 
