Last weekend saw the 2010 Teva Mountain Games come into Vail for the weekend. This is a veritable "olympics" of outdoor athletics, including trail running, whitewater boating, fly fishing, rock climbing/bouldering, outdoor dog competitions, and of course, mountain biking. The Teva Mountain Games had a very subtle start several years ago...but has absolutely blown up in recent years. Offering a bouldering competition that is part of the World Cup, and a XC mountain bike race boasting some of the largest purses anywhere, the best athletes in the world started showing up. And so did the spectators.
No idea how many this year, but last year's reports indicated more than 40,000 spectators showed up for the four-day event.
This year was no exception. A XC pro race featuring Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Sam Schultz (Subaru/Gary Fisher), Barry Wicks (Kona), Colin Cares (Kenda/Felt), Todd Wells (Clif Bar), as well as locals Jay Henry (Tokyo Joe's) and Jake Wells (Mafia Racing/Felt), with JHK taking the win and the $3,000 booty. On the women's side, Georgia Gould (Luna Chix), Katie Compton (Planet Bike), Heather Irmiger (Subaru/Gary Fisher), and Kelli Emmett (Giant) battled it out, with Georgia Gould taking the win for her $3,000.
Lapping through after the first go-round...I'm buried.
Other fields were absolutely huge. 73 started in the men's Expert class. Hundreds lined up for the Sport and Beginner classes. On a day that was actually hot for Vail (temps in the low-80s and lots of sunshine), the race organizers had an absolutely brutal course on tap. The Expert race involved three laps around a classic Vail course (which has hosted past World Cup races), with lots of muddy singletrack climbing, and even more technical, loose, and bumpy singletrack back down the mountain. Each lap signed the racers up for 1500ft of vertical gain, with 7 miles of distance.
Based on reports from those at the finish line, this course did not let up on anyone. Between the men's Pro and Expert fields, at least 15 racers registered a DNF due to the combination of the warmth, the elevation, and the fact that this course is super-difficult for this early in the season.
I was lucky enough to finish, but did not do so very gracefully. Fighting a bout of exhaustion, a lack of motivation, and the fact I rode the Stumpy hardtail across what seemed like endless bumpy terrain, I wound up crossing the line in 58th of the 73 starters. The entire third lap I spent in a very bad place - my body had pretty much blown up 20 minutes prior to starting the lap, and my lower back was hurting from the extreme effort and the bumpy terrain, so much so that I couldn't physically pedal with any force. Soft-pedaling an entire 7 mile lap will take anyone a ton of time.
So, since then, I've been taking it pretty easy. No biking Sunday, easy rode spin for an hour on Monday, then no biking Tuesday. Wednesday had us locals all lining up for the second race in the Vail Rec District mountain bike series - the Eagle Classic. Temps in the 90s in Eagle, with no precipitation for days, left racers with a very dusty and rippin' fast course. Reatively flat, with 600ft elevation between the lowest and the highest points, and a grunt climb with 150ft gain over 200 meters means a really fast ride. However, 85% singletrack for an XC course also means that it is very tactical, and if you're not careful, you can get caught in a bad situation early.
Typical to the races I've been to this year, massive groups of people. In the Juniors race at 5:00pm, 70 riders toed the line. Hundreds in both the Sport/Beginner wave at 5:45, as well as the Pro/Expert wave at 6:30.
Back end of the Sport wave. Hundreds showed to throw down.
Let's just say timing isn't VRD's strong suit. The Pro/Expert field went off at 6:30 sharp, which meant we ran right into the back end of the women's Sport riders on our first lap. The whole point of us starting later is for the course to be clear for our race. Anyway, I got boxed in during a double-paceline start, and before I knew it, I literally ran right into the back end of a women's Sport rider. Didn't mean to; just didn't have an option. Unfortunately, on this course, my race was officially over at that point. I finished, but that bobble put another 5 people by me, and spend the rest of the race trying to catch up. Then on the subsequent downhill singletrack section, I got stuck behind the last-place men's Sport rider...who couldn't ride downhill. [Get off the brakes, man!] But all in all, I had a good effort for the rest of the race, and finished 9th in the Expert category. If I don't get caught in those particular situations, I probably finish 5th or so. I just glad my teammate in Expert is killing it so far this year - two starts, two wins. By huge margins.
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