Alter Ego 8 Enduro Report.
Ride started great. Loved the new frame and especially the new shock. My plan was to ride with Don as long as I could.
Those plans died when I got a flat tire at the beginning of Kurt’s Cut - roughly halfway through the loop. Started jogging along - which in cycling shoes is a real treat. Too stupid to pack a tube or pump and no one else had any. So it was a long jog back to the tech. zone although I tried to run hard in hopes of maybe catching up.
Lap results show the group I was riding with put 10 minutes on me during that lap and then 5 more for the next lap where I changed the tube - not so fast on the tube changes. My own watch shows a just under 32 minute lap 3 so I did go hard after the flat was fixed.
Realizing the others were 10+ minutes ahead was pretty demoralizing in a situation where keeping morale up is hard enough. Kept on chugging with good laps and not so good laps. Eventually waging my usual creative battle on cramps.
Kept chugging and more or less trying to enjoy the tunes and the scenery concentrating on the joy of living vs. the pain of racing.
Who knows how it would have gone without the flat and energy burned running the bike out? Probably would have snuck in another lap…
A couple final thoughts:
1. Thanks to the Alter Ego Crew. I wish more people showed up. To me this would be a great day to ride as a group of 4 or a family. Mark your calendar for next year. The logistics were spot on. It all made sense. We started on time. Prizes were generous and food was the best I’ve had yet post - race.
2. This is not worth mentioning except that poor ol’ Cramer takes a bit of a beating for always cutting these trails and then putting them into races so they can turn from “new” to “established” in one day. They make for some difficult races early on but they lead to some incredible trails later.
Not taking anything away from Alter Ego’s work and not even saying Cramer’s way is the best possible way. Just pointing out that if we give him a hard time when he cuts them we also need to give him his due when we benefit from his hard work down the road. 5 of his recent trails (2009 and 2010) were in last Sunday’s course*. His original work + Alter Ego’s creativity and effort came together last Sunday and we all had a great experience because of it.
*They are the rooted climb beside road, connecting trail to top of Giles, trail at top of off camber section, downhill trail leading into the field and short hill, and the section after Canada Cup downhill along the top of the stream / switchbacks.
