Race Day

The rollout from Bothy Bikes was at 9:30 so we were up early for breakfast and to get the bikes set up. The Giant pros rode out in full costume to keep the tone casual: Adam in his classic jean shorts and a sweet denim vest, Carl in a kilt and tartan hat, and Kelli in a red, strapless uni-tard with thigh high stockings. We joined the crowd of hundreds at Bothy Bikes and John announced the rollout promptly at 9:30. The rollout took us initially on the path that Jim and I had ridden yesterday. Quickly the group of +300 split up and lost whoever was leading to the course. One small group headed down a short section of singletrack and the rest of us followed the wide walking path. When we hit a T junction we all looked around bewildered by the course and waited around for local legend Nash to collect us and lead us back on course. The rollout took us 7 miles along wide walking trails, over a iron bridge, and along asphalt to the start area just above the local (and largely defunct) ski area. The rollout was a wildly mixed crowd, the highlights were several children getting towed in Burley trailers and a guy with a custom built dual suspension bike designed with a 20 in rear wheel so that he can ride trail with a child seat on the back.
We came to a stop at the finishing area under cold gray clouds and received out instructions for the day. We were to have a Lemans start, running initially up on the left side of the trail, turning around and descending on the right, then get on our bikes and “peal like fuck!”. The race itself would start off on long road climb and comprise 5 laps “or so”.
At the start I found a safe place for my bike and shuffled up to the line for the run. With 1.5 hours in the saddle already I ate a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich and stowed a goo in each bib leg for easy access. Jim came by and said he’d overheard the Scots talking about several sketchy drop-offs on the course and gave a word of warning. With little fanfare we were off and I worked my way through the crowd of runners. About halfway up I saw a goo go skidding across the trail and realized that I’d lost half my food (thankfully I had spares in my pocket, but only 2). Onto the bikes I did as instructed and pedaled like crazy through the road descent an into the climb. There was a fair bit of traffic to get ahead of so I did what I could to ride strong through the opening climb. After a long road ascent (during which Adam passed me after taking it easy on the run) the trail turned up a single track climb that I made most of, but had to walk the steep middle section. From there the beautiful singletrack on this course began to shine. The first section was over soft, peaty pine floor that turned and wrapped around on wet roots and muddy pools. From there up another double track road climb and into a windy section of singletrack that dumped us out on an exposed rock outcropping with a nice set of 2.5 foot drops to prep me for the trails to come. From there the course wound down a spectacular series of singletrack trails that wound back down the mountain side. The turns were tight and there was lots of off camber roots to keep me on my toes. Turning off a quick double track connector I hit the first of what I presume were the sketchy drops, 3 feet of rock, straight down onto soft pine floor below. I managed to take everything on lap one faster than I’d expected and breathed a sigh of relief when I found myself safely at the bottom of that one. From there it went down, then up. Roots, big rocks, fast open descents. I marked the riders ahead of me for their lines and planned on making the time up on the long road climb. The lap ended with a long singletrack descent that wound around on beautiful banked turns through the heather. It was super fast and I came barreling down it at speeds I wasn’t used to, both wheels drifting through the turns and the whole bike rising over the bumps as if it had a mind of its own.
Lap 2 was about catching people on the climb. Halfway up I caught sight of Kelli Emmit’s red uni-tard ahead of me and made it my goal to catch her. When we hit the singletrack I found that the previous 350 riders had churned up the mud and polished the roots and so the techy sections went a bit slower, trying to keep the bike underneath me. Towards the end of the lap I caught up to Kelly and we headed up the climb together in a group of 3 taking turns pulling at the front. Into the singletrack climbs we challenged each other to make it the furthest before dismounting and the 29er wheels tended to carry me a bit further, but I deferred to her when the trail got tight and watched her expert bike handling to see what I could learn about riding a bike. We rode much of laps 3 and 4 together (that is, I caught her on the climbs and she dusted me in the singletrack) but she gapped me when I was taken out by a lapped rider on a steep open rock descent. I made it down the slippery rock face fine, but squeezing through the trees a the bottom was a bit too tight and I hit the bar of the rider who’d pulled of ahead of me and went flying into the trees. It took me a while to get my bearings and rhythm again and spent the next 10 minutes floundering around in the roots.
The second half of lap 4 and all of lap 5 was full of traffic from lapped riders. They were good about clearing the way but I had no hopes of making up any of the time I’d lost and resolved myself to just holding my position. I came across the line to find most of the field there cheering, as John and the boys had shut stopped riders from starting a 5th lap soon after I’d come through my last one. The atmosphere at the finish was elated, the course was awesome, super fast and everyone was trading stories of their favorite bits. Adam Craig had crossed the line first, with a handy lead over Travis Brown and Carl Decker. Kelli had smoked the women’s field, lapping second and third place riders Jen and Sinead (whose last names I never got). With no formal place keeping I have no idea where I finished, but apparently it was quite a feat to get 5 laps, which puts me somewhere in the top 20. Placing aside, I was completely stoked to have ridden as well as I did, taking the very technical trials faster than I’ve ridden before.
The highlight of the race was Adams spectacular crash in just after crossing the finishing area for his last lap. Craig, who’d played the part for most of the race, riding in full costume and twice stopping for beers on course, was just putting away the beer he’d been handed for the last lap when he hit an exposed rock with his hands off the bar. He flew over the bike and hit the road with his forearms and knees. He shook it off quickly and rode a stellar last lap to finish with a handy lead, afterwards joking that he was thankful for the crash as it took his mind off the newly inked tattoo on his ass.

Aviemore

After registration and a relaxing mid-day at the internet café Jim and I headed out in search of singletrack to get a feel for the upcoming race. We headed out on the opposite side of town from yesterday and found ourselves again exploring a large series of double track.  Much of it was well maintained and well traveled walking trail, but as we got further along towards a series of lochs, the trail got rougher and less traveled. We climbed up a long gradual climb towards Loch Einich.  With the time getting on we turned around and bombed back down the rough track back to the well trodden trails.  We took a long way back around to the bike shop around Loch Eilein, which finally provided us with a long track of nice singletrack, a mix of roots, rocks, and mud.  Our 1-hour spin ultimately turned into 2.5 hours by the time we were back to the bike shop to catch a bit of the 2008 selections competition, a sprint race on a set of matched track bikes set on rollers and attached to a large dial, ala Triplets of Belleville.
There we ran into Rob, who we were meant to share a guesthouse room with.  We’d been hearing stories all day of people getting kicked out of their rooms for overloading with people and were a bit wary of continuing on with the original plan.  The folks at the Giant house were very accommodating and said that we could keep on here rather than pack up and move again.  To show our appreciation we made a big pre-race meal for the bunch and the 8 of us sat around the table loading up for the day ahead.
We capped the night off at the pre-race party at The Vault. Though smoking is outlawed indoors here, they revived the classic atmosphere with a smoke machine and we managed to hold on to about 12:30 before getting smoked out.