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Chris Matthews's Journal
Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mundays...
posted by RoubaixRider at 06:00 PM on August 12, 2008
I will preface this all by saying that it was all our fault. All 300-or-so of us. On a day that promised 3500 meters of climbing (back home in Canada, I find it so easy to flip back to metric...that's like 12,000ft if meters don't suit you), we were absolutely pummeled at the 5-ish hour mark, with lots left to go. And we hit the hike-a-bike that sent us straight up a rocky, loose mountainside. A quiet, somber line of hundreds, each with their bike across their backs, only breaking the silence to swear, or to yell "ROCK!" as a boulder got kicked loose and went screaming down the valley.
The Italians, the race leaders at this point, were the first to summit. and also the first to realize that this was not where we were supposed to be. No trail markers. No nothing. Just a great view of WeHaveNoIdea. And about 90 minutes of stairmaster that we didn't really need to do.
So we slugged back down (thankfully we didn't make the wrong turn going downhill, leaving us looking up the trail back to the course...), and found the singletrack again. The traffic jam was thick like currant pie. The race stragglers (still all able-bodied folks, of course) were now ahead of the 300-ish folks who were ahead of them, and the trail was slow. But, hey, that's racing.
The singletrack sections afterwards were a treat, dotted with wet roots, river crossings, and soft loamy BC soil. Adventure was promised, and two days in, my legs are sore and I'm feelin' good. 8hours and a few minutes after we started, Cush and I crossed the finish line. The race organizers have apparently neutralized the stage because of the conflagration, so we're still in 18th place. Of the 103 teams that started in our open category, there are 74 starting today.
Today is the time trial - 44.5 km of apparently beauty singletrack, without the threat of massive climbs, something in the area of 1500M total. Cush and I go off at 1:23, so about an hour and a half from now. Time to go suit up.
Internet out here is tough to come by. Might be able to post again tonight, but might not. We'll see.
categories: General
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