We were there to race even though we knew we wouldn’t win. A trio of middle-aged men coming together for the first time was ill-fated and foolish from the start but it didn’t matter- we were there to ride hard, have fun, and enjoy the sport we love.
The night time trial began with us looking at each other and asking ‘ok, what order should we ride in?’ That question was answered with ‘I haven’t ridden in three weeks so Ill ride in the back’ by one of us, ‘I don’t see well in the dark’ by another, and ‘I brought the handlebar-cam so I want some good footage’ by the third. It turns out the handlebar-cam was out of batteries anyway. So we rode- calling out to each other as much as we could while our little slinky or riders stretched back and forth. Scott made the climbs look easy, Dave eventually found his flow, and I held on for dear life. We over-cooked the final corner a bit but at least no one was run-over in the process. All in all it was a lot of fun and we began to understand each other a little more over post-race recovery beers.
Waking up slowly with the sun the next morning after a marginal night’s sleep was not how I had hoped to start the day of the enduro. Still, a breakfast filled with pancakes, sausage, and espresso woke us all up and got us moving and we decided on the strategy for the day. Dave was to do the first lap (and the lemans start!) so he could have a few hours to take care of Juni while Scott and I would roll out the next four laps. After that it would all depend on how everyone was feeling.
Dave came rolling in on his second lap looking pretty beat up- he mumbled something about it being easy to crash out there but I was so filled with adrenaline I didn’t even notice his taco’ed wheel. I was off for my first lap and once my legs settled into a rhythm the forest buzzed by and I enjoyed being out there racing. A little under an hour later I handed the torch off to Scott and settled out. Dave told me about his crash and then was off to swim in the pond a little to keep Juni entertained. I had a coke (the real sugar kind, none of that hfcs crap) and waited for Scott to come around where the course passed in front of our campsite. He rolled through and I put myself back together for round two.
Scott rolled in and I was off. My legs were a little heavy from the break, but once I pushed through that the flow came back. It was a little warmer now but there was a breeze so it wasn’t a big deal. I climbed when I needed to, pedaled out of every corner, and turned in another sub-hour lap. Now my only goal was to keep turning consistent lap times to test the depth of my legs, so with that I sent Scott on his way. Dave was going to do a double-lap on the next round so I figured I had about three hours to relax before I came up again in the rotation. I grabbed some food, took a dip in the pond, showered and crashed on my cot for a while. A little later I emerged from the tent and it was about time to go back out. Two more flats later, Dave rolled into the camping area and I suited up. I felt pretty refreshed, but a little stiff so we would see if I could keep to my goal. We were almost a lap behind at this point but it didn’t matter- we were out there and enjoying it so we decided to do a Dan-Scott-Dave cycle and then see how we felt and where we were at afterwords.
My third lap was pretty uneventful but there was a climb I now needed to walk. The lungs were good but the legs were getting tired. 1×9 was better than singlespeed at this point, but I still had to dismount. Oh well….one more sub-hour lap in the books.
Round four was a parade lap. I would be the last one out for our team and even if I had been able to ride like Robbie (43 minute fastest lap) we never would have made up enough time to bump into fourth place, so when I rolled out all I wanted to do is see if I could keep a consistent lap time. It was not to be- early on in the course during a tight and fast downhill section I clipped a stump and hit the eject button. I landed upside-down on my shoulder, rolled once and was laying in the bushes with my bike on top of me. Ouch. Ok, take inventory- nothing hurt too badly. Check the bike, nothing looks broken. Robbie comes flying by me, laughs a little and makes sure I’m ok, and then continues on to turn in the fastest lap of the entire event. By then though, the wind was low in my sails so I didn’t have a sub-hour lap in me. I grabbed a beer hand-up when I came through the camping area, sang along with the band, and reveled in having ridden 33 miles on dirt with 3600 feet of climbing at race pace.
All in all I ended up being extremely satisfied with the depth of my legs, the strength of our team, and the camaraderie of all the racers there. This is what it is supposed to be like, ans I made sure I savored every second. Thanks for a great time Dave and Scott- maybe next time we will go a little faster 
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