Spoke Pony at Swope... Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves

I raced the Spoke Pony 3/6 at Swope on Saturday, it was a lot of fun.

I hadn't raced in forever and i hadn't raced mountian bikes in really forever so it was nice to get back out there.

For the past two weeks i've been riding swope as much as possible, especially when i learned the race loop went the opposite direction than i'm used to... all that riding helped.

Recap:

Lap 1

Holy sh*t these rocks are slippery, i guess thats what happens when it rains the day before. I'm glad i skipped the pre-riding because it might of pshcyed me out. Im also glad i slotted into the seemingly perfect spot after the short uphill paved road start. I barely got held up in traffic but someone right behing me must of held everyone up because after 5 minutes on the singletrack there was nobody behind me. Eat a clif shot and some beef jerky.

Lap 2

Holy sh*t these rocks are still slippery. Be cautious and know you've got the V8 Interceptor Mad Max wheels to carry you thru to the finish. You'll be fine. Whoops, bad line = endo down a hill. Even Max crashes occasionally. Am i okay, yes, i think, on we go. Man, that was probably an awesome crash to witness. I wish i was Jdoug. He saw it, plus his 6 hr pace seems to be faster than my 3 hr pace. Eat a Clif shot and some beef jerky.

Lap 3

Starting to cramp, ass starting to hurt, but at least the rocks are less slippery. Man, my ass hurts, and i better stop and stretch. Thank god i've got this camel-back, all roadies should wear camelbacks during mountain bike races, i crashed twice at the Warsaw race just fiddling with my bottle. Max would totally use a camel-back. These sections are drying out so maybe i can ride them, oh wait, fatigue is setting in so maybe not. Eat a Clif shot and some beef jerky.

Lap 4

My ass is killing me, i can barely sit down. Maybe that's adding to the extremem cramping in my legs becasue im having to using them double time just to lift my butt off the seat. Where did i hide that coke, by the tree near the start / finish, there it is... ahhhhh, sweet relief. Maybe i can make this my fastest lap yet... ha, who am i kidding... i'm dying. But i should be dying, i'm about to ride 4 laps at swope when the most i've ever done is two. And really, dying is too strong of a word, i have some power left but not being able to sit is killing me. I'll just stay out of the saddle as much as possible. ohhh, Here comes 8 pin, dismount, walk it, survive, continue. The finish is close now, i just passed the dead hooker, wait, is that Ricky Skaggs with a beer hand up? It is! I'm crossing the line triumphantly with a cold beer in hand, wow!

And to top things off i finished 2nd in the 30-39 category!!!

Now, let's keep this in perspective. At least two guys who would have beat me had mechanicals and didn't finish (i had no mechanicals, maybe my bike has more life in it than i think) plus the turnout was not huge, but still... my age group had 18 starters and i beat all but one. I'll take it.

Then i went home and put all sorts of creams and ointments on my ass, next time i'll be sure to use more shammy butter and a better saddle. No matter though, i turned on the tube to find Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome on AMC.

Life is good.

*Thanks to Justin and Bike Source at 95th and Mission for the tune up on Friday afternoon. Like usual i waited till the last minute but they totally accommodated me and it made a huge difference. Britton from Volker was tending to his new born baby boy so i decided to give him the day off.

*Thanks to everyone who made the race happen, i had a great time and it was because of your hard work.