Kaslo Suffer Fest 2012, MTB 100K !

First of all I have to start by giving a huge thanks to Michael at the Dome Quixote hotel in New Denver, awesome and unique little place right in town with all the amenities you need before and after a race.

After spending some time in the hot tub with Maria and Nick I headed out to the pre-race meeting at Kaslo (about 50k from New Denver on a beautiful twisty road) and met there with Andy, Stefan, Many, Craig, Julie and few others Dead Goats..

The pre-race meeting went well and was very detailed about the different course markings. They warned us about the terrain, some black diamond down hills, exposure, etc...

Every down hill was actually very rideable and wasn't as bad as I thought, I can't say the same about the climbs !%$ where I was pushing up the bike longer than expected... I choose a good gear for the climbs (I think) 32/21, but even with that I had to walk lots.... The start was at 7:00am sharp. Lined up at the front with Andy, Many, Travis and few other fast guys. We hammered the start pretty good and Andy was in the lead with the first 4 guys for a long time, I was watching him fairly close and keeping a pace that was hurting the rest of the peloton (my plan was to bury myself in all the climbs specially the first 20ks of the race as I knew there was a lot of down hills and flats where I wasn't going to have a big enough gear to pedal, so by making up time in the climbs I could at least gain some time :-)))). I was feeling pretty tire chasing Andy and felt like if we were riding for ever (but when I looked my computer we had only been riding for 1.9k :-((( holy crap if I feel like this and is only the first 1.9k??? anyway, we kept the hammer down for close to 20k of climbing and were top 5 by then.. The descent was great, fast and flowy to the drop bag area. I grabbed my bottles and took off. (at this point I didn't see Andy and was a bit concern about it.., but didn't see Shaun Taylor either (the other single speed guy) so I thought I was just keeping a good gap..). More climbing at this point and some flats until I got to the creek crossing on the cable car!

Awesome job done by volunteers pulling the car across the creek so fast !! after the crossing you pass through a ghost town that actually feels really spooky## some downs and rolly sections before the biggest climb of the day (1,200+mts of elevation all the way up the Jackson Basin through 27 switch backs...) it was an unreal climb with lots of walking for single speeders and gear guys too... I managed to pass 2 guys that were in front of me for a while (Pete and Steve) and made sure to stay out of sight for a while. We started the descent after 65ks and soon enough those 2 guys passed me flying down/ I almost crash and my breaks were smoking, so I decided to slow down and take it easy for a little bit.. End of the down hill and back into the rolly section and my computer was marking 90ks, so I knew it was going to be over soon and kept a good pace ... When I reached 98k and haven't seen the 10k last check point yet I knew that my computer was wrong, F$#%^ ! oh man I was so looking forward to finish this race that the last thing I wanted to do was to ride for more that 100k... The good thing was that I was on the right trials (unlike Craig M. and Julie who decided to ride in their own trails..). So had an extra gel and continued with a hard pace, at this point I started to see the proximity of the town and my excitements for been the first single speeder crossing the finish line was keeping me motivated (last thing I wanted to happen was to get passed in the last few kms by Shaun...). Crossed the finish line in 7:12 and with 110km and 11,300+ feet of elevation gain/loss I was ready to get off the bike and chill out with Maria and Nick !!

I waited for Andy in the finish line, but unfortunately he had had a mechanical in the first 30ks and couldn't finish the race (no wonder why I never saw him, because he was for sure keeping a good and strong pace, no doubt he would had won this race). Many was few minutes behind me and crossed the finish with a smile after having a good time in the race too; Craig and Julie couldn't say the same (since they rode their own course), but they got free entries for next year :-). I had a good race, came 8th over all, first single speed crossing the line, at first they told me I was in the podium in my age group in 2nd place, but apparently there were some guys registered in the wrong age group and they needed to go over the lists again before posting official results :-( Any way huge thanks to the town of Kaslo for such an amazing series of events this weekend, I hope I can make it back next year, totally worth the drive :-)

PS: Complete profile 11,316ft of elevation in 106kms