MSC #4 - Wildflower Rush

Well, after having an entire week to let the event sink in, saturate my body, twist my mind, and reflect on the experience, here's what went down last week at Crested Butte:

Saturday, June 26 was the day for the fourth race in the Mountain States Cup series, the Wildflower Rush.

Racing this event last year as a Cat 2 (Sport) rider, we did several laps up a steep-but-fun singletrack up the ski area at Crested Butte, followed by a gnarly descent down a freshly-cut singletrack, with lots of bumps, roots, rocks, and loose, loamy dirt.

This year, the race truly coincided with Crested Butte's annual "Fat Tire Bike Week", a week-long affair with lots of music, drinking, and mountain bike tomfoolery.  Of course, part of the fun is the Chainless Downhill, a race down Kebler Pass into the town, on bikes with the chains removed.  NO pedaling, just riding the bike.  Lots of costumes, lots of alcohol consumed.  I'm sure good times are had by all...

Enough of that.  Back to the race.  Since the events were concurrent this year, the Pro and Cat 1 fields were 'treated' to the Fat Tire 40 XC course - forty miles of singletrack goodness.  Literally, 90%, or 4 miles, was on dirt road.  The rest was pure, fresh high-Rockies singletrack.  This means thin air, long technical climbs, long technical descents, and breathtaking views.

And suff-er-ing.

FT40 Course Profile. Almost 7800 feet of climbing, topping out at well over 12,000ft above sea level.

Race started at 8:00am, and due to the length and the type of start, there wasn't much of a point to an extended warm-up.  Breakfast, 10 minutes of spinning, and we're lining up.  Race started by switchbacking up the main ski area for a mile or so, then went off to the south, onto the New Deli trail, a rocky, rooty but fun singletrack traversing around the west side of Mt. Crested Butte (the mountain, not the town).  Pure Colorado jungle. Unfortunately, a sprinkle of rain the night before made this section a little more damp than I would have liked, as there were a number of short climbs up some big rocks and roots, and my Hutchinson Pythons weren't exactly holding the trail particularly well.

Course map. That's a big-ass loop.

Dumping out onto Brush Creek Road, we turned uphill and began a short 1-1/2 mile section of road. Caught a couple people to draft on, then we started climbing in earnest. A single/doubletrack reaching grades of 20% or better stretched on for a number of miles before we hopped onto true singletrack, and started climbing up to the Strand Hill area.

Once on Strand Hill, we looped around the Farris Creek trail (see the small loop section on the map). This trail was pretty fun, as it climbed somewhat mellow for quite a while. All of a sudden, you started descending. I mean, really going down hill. It officially serves as the most technical section of trail I've ever cleaned completely. It's really hard to explain just how long this rock garden was...imagine riding a bike down a staircase. And the staircase is a mile long. At the bottom, what had to be 10 riders were fixing flats from this section, and I'm sure a countless number of others had issues throughout the descent.

Colorado Jungle. New Deli Trail, Crested Butte, CO.

After Farris Creek, we rode some flowy meadow-type trails to get back to Brush Creek road. Just before reaching the road (mile 20), there was a creek river crossing. 30 feet wide, and literally thigh-deep. Pick up the bike and run through. Water was about 42 degrees...effin COLD. Anyways, hopped on the bike, spun through the 20-mile aid station for some new water bottles, and continued on.

I was just over two hours in, and felt like I was having a pretty good ride for the halfway point.

Funny how your mind can change in a hurry. As we started climbing out of the 20 mile point, toward Pearl Pass, within 20 minutes, I was psychologically just trying to finish. The main climb of the course, from Brush Creek Road up to the top of the Deer Creek trail, absolutely crushed me, mentally and physically.

Anyways, we continued up Brush Creek Road toward Pearl Pass, but took a left of that road and continued up a winding single/doubletrack with, again, grades that reached 20% or better. But this climb never let up. After climbing for half an hour on that section, we officially started the Deer Creek Trail, a beautiful but uber-steep 10-mile long trail connecting Brush Creek Road to Gothic Road. About a 5 minute reprieve when we started the trail, then right back up. This section had grades that were well in excess of 20%, but never shallower than 15%. And roots; oh my God the roots. At about 2:45 in, my body truly started giving up. Not 'bonking', per se - I just flat out ran out of gas. This sad sack of meat didn't have that long of an effort in it. Eventually had to dismount and push the bike up the hill, and even that was exhausting at 12,500ft. I'd push my bike into a root, and realize I didn't have the strength in my arms to actually push the bike up and over. Had to literally pick the bike up, and put it back down above the root. About 5 creek crossings and steep pitches later, we could finally start descending. Treated to the kind of pictures they put on post cards, I started ripping down toward Gothic Road as quickly as my strength would allow.

Heading up to Deer Creek from Brush Creek Road; photo by VastAction

I rolled into the 30-mile aid station at Gothic Road at just over 4 hours in. After finishing the first half of the race in 2 hours, I just proceeded to lay an egg and ride that 10-mile stretch in the same 2 hours. Wow. Grabbed a banana and two new bottles, and off I went. Suddenly, I had some life back in the legs, and was able to big-ring Gothic Road back into town.

Just when I thought it was over, the course was routed back up the ski area on the backside. Switchback after switchback, I slogged up Crested Butte. In my granny gear. I had nothing left. I mean, you couldn't even smell the gas fumes anymore, I was so blown.

As I crested (no pun intended) the top of the final climb of the day, two-thirds of the way up the mountain, I started into the descent down to the finish line. Two miles of super bumpy, super loose, super rocky singletrack laid between me and the end. And it was excruciating. My legs couldn't keep the bike moving forward anymore, my back was on fire from the constant bouncing on the hardtail, and my shoulders were numb from the bike handling. My triceps were cramping they were so tired. And my mind was completely absent. I didn't even notice the views I had at the top (like in the picture to the side). I just wanted to be done.

View north from high on Crested Butte. No, it's not a green screen...it actually looked like that. I think.

After numerous close calls on the way down (just too tired and sloppy to ride well), I finally came limping across the finish line. 5 hours and 10 minutes after I started, I was finally back at the same spot, and couldn't have been happier.

In retrospect, it was a great ride for me. That was the longest my stamina actually held on (for about 3 hours) this season, I did a good job of keeping a steady tempo for that period, and I had not one mechanical issue, flat, or nourishment issue. Just to finish that race was impressive, as many people didn't. I managed to finish in front of someone I have been competing with in all the other MSC races, so I was pretty stoked about that, too.

Oh yeah, and it was a beautiful ride. Not that I noticed. :)