Kaslo Suffer Fest 100k MTB, 3rd time, still love it.
Well this was my third time riding the Kaslo Suffer Fest 100k MTB, but my first time riding the course backwards > yeah, we started at Kaslo and rode to New Denver this time.. Huge elevation gain/lost (4,765 mts !) ouch.
Thanks to Andy I didn't have to drive on my own to Kaslo last Saturday, I met him at 9:00 am and drove together for 8 hours ! in the rain... He found a B&B in Kaslo (about 15min south). Lisa (Terrascape and her friend Rob managed to signed up last minute). who does that??? ::--)) it is like ok I will ride 100 k tomorrow, let's pack our bikes !! very cool though..
It was raining till 3am on Sunday, but the race started at 7:00am and the rain had stopped by then ! It was of course wet, but the conditions of the course were really good. Five min into the race I had the first crash !@#$ it always happens, right after a hanging bridge there was a bit of loose gravel and down I went !, got on the bike quickly and kept riding. I was riding in 6th or 7th place for the first half an hour or so, when all of the sudden I was riding on my own, and to Andy's surprise I showed up in front of him at around the 1 hour mark.. he told me I was off the course, but I wasn't sure if the first guys (including Andy were off the course themselves !), so anyway, no big deal, I probably gained 10min max on him and lost another 30 later on.... I hammer the next 45 min and Andy and I covered a lot of soil in that time, lots of sweat... I could tell by my breathing and sweating! Once I saw Andy drifting away from me, then I was going back to normal heart rate pace and minimum sweating ::--)) that is why is always good to team up and play hard, it helps so much when someone is making you push harder.
My computer wasn't working, so I didn't know the distance I was in, just the time.. based on time I knew I could move at around 15k/p/h on average/ so I had a rough idea of my location.
When I got to the 66k AID station my tommy wasn't feeling well AT ALL !! as I was drinking zips of water I could feel every piece inside my digestive system (not fun !), kept riding and more climbing ahead of me was to come.. I bumped into Andy for the second time and he was just finishing up with a flat he had. I picked up the pace once again as we hammered (literally hammered the second biggest climb in the race), I can't remember at what point I lost him again, but I did. So, knowing that he was ahead of me, the tactic now was chasing him down !
The last climb is about an hour long and after that an amazing descend of 45 minutes (all single track, beautiful ""if you have the energy"" but at that point and after 85k I wasn't enjoying the f... down hill... I was bouncing all over and crashed a couple of times (nothing to bad).
I came 8th overall (out of 40 I think) and 4th in my age category (which is not that bad given the lack of training I have had before this long race..
Next year I will try to be in better shape.
Thanks to Andy I didn't have to drive on my own to Kaslo last Saturday, I met him at 9:00 am and drove together for 8 hours ! in the rain... He found a B&B in Kaslo (about 15min south). Lisa (Terrascape and her friend Rob managed to signed up last minute). who does that??? ::--)) it is like ok I will ride 100 k tomorrow, let's pack our bikes !! very cool though..
It was raining till 3am on Sunday, but the race started at 7:00am and the rain had stopped by then ! It was of course wet, but the conditions of the course were really good. Five min into the race I had the first crash !@#$ it always happens, right after a hanging bridge there was a bit of loose gravel and down I went !, got on the bike quickly and kept riding. I was riding in 6th or 7th place for the first half an hour or so, when all of the sudden I was riding on my own, and to Andy's surprise I showed up in front of him at around the 1 hour mark.. he told me I was off the course, but I wasn't sure if the first guys (including Andy were off the course themselves !), so anyway, no big deal, I probably gained 10min max on him and lost another 30 later on.... I hammer the next 45 min and Andy and I covered a lot of soil in that time, lots of sweat... I could tell by my breathing and sweating! Once I saw Andy drifting away from me, then I was going back to normal heart rate pace and minimum sweating ::--)) that is why is always good to team up and play hard, it helps so much when someone is making you push harder.
My computer wasn't working, so I didn't know the distance I was in, just the time.. based on time I knew I could move at around 15k/p/h on average/ so I had a rough idea of my location.
When I got to the 66k AID station my tommy wasn't feeling well AT ALL !! as I was drinking zips of water I could feel every piece inside my digestive system (not fun !), kept riding and more climbing ahead of me was to come.. I bumped into Andy for the second time and he was just finishing up with a flat he had. I picked up the pace once again as we hammered (literally hammered the second biggest climb in the race), I can't remember at what point I lost him again, but I did. So, knowing that he was ahead of me, the tactic now was chasing him down !
The last climb is about an hour long and after that an amazing descend of 45 minutes (all single track, beautiful ""if you have the energy"" but at that point and after 85k I wasn't enjoying the f... down hill... I was bouncing all over and crashed a couple of times (nothing to bad).
I came 8th overall (out of 40 I think) and 4th in my age category (which is not that bad given the lack of training I have had before this long race..
Next year I will try to be in better shape.
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