Stkx66
iMTB Rockstah
I've been riding Mtn bikes for 8 years now. A while back a friend recommended this race to me- the Ridgecrest Desert Classic. I've never raced a mtn bike before. I've been wanting to race this race because it's in the general area I've been riding/ racing motorcycles for the past 40 years. And not that I'm a competitive person because I'm not that either. It's a race I wanted to do because of the area. Unicycles and pleasure riders did a 14 mile loop. Expert/pro's did a 28 mile loop. I opted for a 22 mile loop. It was a beautiful day and really cold out with bright sunshine. My daughter and I teamed up so I could ride this race today and tomorrow she would ride our club Enduro race nearby on her KTM 300. It's working out perfect so far. I contacted organizers and asked what the climbing would be and they said 2,500 feet for my loop. I thought hey.. that just like my Black Star spin. Should be ok! We showed up an hour and a half early. They gave me my number. I had fretted on what tire combo to pick but it turns out my 2.4 DHF was heavy and my 2.3 Crossmark rear was ok. I noticed quite a few Aspens on other bikes, but hey I wasn't expecting pics with booth babes on the podium. It turns out my Ibis Ripley was a good choice for this mostly XC style race but next time I would choose a hardtail. 5 miles in, my fancy AXS reverb dropper collapsed, again! The guts spit out the bottom. The cerclip gave way. I was a 1,000 feet from the first check/ aid station. I asked for a 5mm Allen wrench and raised my seat up 4.5-5 inches to keep going. It was weird after that not being able to drop the seat in corners and the like. I never had to stop from being too tired, I simply slowed down and grabbed taller gears. I passed quite a few riders and got passed by a few ( more than a few ) much faster riders. I spent a good portion of the race going back and forth with one other rider. He passed me, I passed him. He stopped twice to adjust his shoes and eventually caught me both times. Most of the climbs were on shallow sand with hardback below. The course did go down rocky single track towards the finish, and you could get some downhill speed out there. Later in the day shadows around rocks were a concern. I think with a hardtail and being a little more cautious I might do better next time. I finished 10th place out of 14 riders in my class, ( my age group?) although the start had probably 60-70 riders. 22 Miles/ 2,600 climbing. 2 hours 39 min. 12 seconds.
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