Whiskey 50 Race Report

That was a really fun weekend. Dave and I raced Whiskey 50 on Saturday and rode the Prescott Monstercross on Sunday. Dave spent most of Saturday chasing me and I spent all of Sunday chasing him…I was kinda blown on Sunday.

On Saturday I raced geared women and Dave raced SS. We all started in one big pack tho’ The start was on pavement. It was very Trans Rockies like with a big pack start on pavement. Having survived 14 of those starts and another 7 similar starts at BCBike race I am a pro. It was plenty rough and the guys were trying to push me around.

Dave and I started near each other but it was such a big rough start we lost each other quickly. I got ahead of him on the first paved climb and right before the single track started he darted in front of me. Then we were rolling through the trees climbing this fabulous switchback climb – beautiful – in a line of guys and I was right on Dave’s wheel. It was making me laugh and chirp and shout out whee! It is really comfortable being on his wheel after all the stage racing we have done.

The climbing got steep and loose. I dropped to the granny riding it and Dave was off his SS walking. We lost each other then cause I was racing – aint no waiting for your BF ;-) On the 50 mile course there is this long out and back section. I was about 2 mins up from the turn around about to hit the 3k climb when I saw Dave so figured out I had about a 3 min lead on him. I was purty sure he would catch me on the climb.

Then Mike Hogan Titus-Chipolte rider came up by me riding smooth and fast and I hopped on his wheel. Mike set a furious pace and pulled me up the climb so fast I never did see Dave.

At Aid station 3 I had to drop off  Mike as I needed water and when I started back off again I had pretty much blown up and wove up the rest of the climb seeing stars!! After that was a big single track descent which I rode like a beginner cause I was so blown! Near the bottom of the descent I hear this voice “hey nutter” and Dave had caught me on a descent on his SS!!

I let him by and he disappears off quickly. A couple of hundred yards later the trail ends and we are on the  2 miles of gradual downhill pavement to the finish. Dave is about 200 yards in front of me.

When I hit the pavement a motorcycle cop pulls up beside me and asks if I am 1st place woman! I had a police escort with flashing lights to the finish line!! I pop into my big chain ring and catch Dave in short order. He jumps on my wheel.

So I roll in up to the finish line with my police escort in front and my boyfriend on my wheel. The cop toots his horn and they announce first place woman is finishing and the crowd cheers. How cool was that :-) Yah it was really cool for me. It made me laugh out loud and smile really big.

Dave was 5th place SSer. They had a wicked deep and fast field.

It was great to hang out with the enduro nuts after the race. Endurance mtb racing attracts the coolest ever characters.

How did that get there?