Little Beaver Mountainbike Challenge

Went to West Virginia to visit family and race bikes. Little Beaver State Park right outside of the New River Gorge area is were the race was held. The course was one of the more challenging that I have raced on. If you like rock gardens and roots then you will love riding here. It is by far one of the more technical rides I have had. About five minutes into the race I bent my cog set and therefore could not ride in about three of the five gears I would have prefered to use. I stopped twice trying to figure out what the hell was going on and finally gave up. I thought, "this race is over". I couldn't believe it, I was going to DNF, I never DNF and then with a few choice words I just got more pissed, and then I thought well no time like the present to figure out the whole single speed theory. (Actually I used about two gears that were not my first choice, but ya gotta make do sometimes.)

If you have ever done a mountain bike race you know once the pac spreads out and unless your on a straight away you often loose track of where you are in the pack, or in the woods for that matter. I had only ridin the course once the day before so both off these effects were in play. I figured I paid my money I may as well ride. It is amazing the mental rollercoaster you can go through when you are pushing your body. I was very lucky. This course was dumping people left and right. I don't believe I have ever seen so many fiddlin with there bikes, walkin, or brushing themselves off as I did at this race. The rock garden were betting us to death. Anyway I figured I wasn't the only one who had problems, so lets have some fun.

I got the finish line and thought, "well, If I ain't gonna win I may as well look cool so, I did a wheelie across the finish line." Come to find out I looked cool gettin 1st place. IN YOUR FACE, ROADIES.