Today I did my second mountain bike race of the year. It was at the Tamarack Resort on the west shore of Lake Cascade about 60 miles north of Boise. They are working towards becoming a destination spot like Sun Valley, with nordic and alpine skiing in the winter and hiking, golf, and mountain biking in the summer. They are busy trying to get things ready for alpine skiing which supposedly should open this winter. There was definitely lots of construction activity in and around the start/finish area of the race course. Heather was able to be my support person which was much needed today because we were doing five laps of a 7.2-mile loop. I would probably be out there for over 2.5 hours so I knew I would need at least a couple of feeds.

I got a good warmup on my rollers (yes, I even use rollers for mt. bike warmups) but I kept it short…only fifteen minutes. I started with a bottle and a 50oz. Camelbak, and told Heather I would probably need 1 bottle on each of laps 2, 3, and 4. The pace was pretty quick from the gun and four riders quickly went to the front. I tried to stay with them, but the course started on a middle-ring climb and I was already redlined. I was using the race as training so I really wanted to do it in “time trial” mode. Basically, starting at a tempo pace and then picking it up as it progressed. So much for that theory! The whole first lap was incredibly hard! They had signs at each mile so you knew how much more you had to suffer, per lap. I remember seeing the 3-mile sign and thinking that I was only halfway done with the first lap!

On the second lap, the strangest thing happened. Two people who I thought were ahead of me, passed me! I couldn’t figure it out. I thought that maybe they both got flats?! Then I thought maybe they looked like the guys up ahead but were really Experts who started behind me, who just happened to ride for the same team. I let them both pass and didn’t really try to stay with them…just continued tempoing. Then I went by for the third lap and this time I ditched my Camelbak and took a bottle. Then, only a half-mile later, those two guys passed me again. At that point, I knew something was wrong. I got to thinking that maybe I made a wrong turn somewhere and cut-off a section of the course. I thought about it for a minute and then remembered a certain section that I had to ride over some small branches. That had to be the place!

So when I got to that point, at about mile 5.5, I paid very close attention to the signs. Well, I found the problem. There was a section of trail that went totally straight, after coming out of some twisty singletrack. The trail went straight, but the course did a 90 degree left turn. There was an arrow pointing straight at about 15 feet from the turn then another one about 8 feet from the turn. Then, kind of behind a thin bush was the sign that pointed left! This time I made the turn, and discovered a whole new section of wonderful single track! Once I got back to the trail I rode on laps 1 and 2, I tried to guestimate how much I cut off. I figured about 3-4 minutes per lap. So at this point, I knew I was definitely just doing this for the training because I will be disqualified once I told them of my mistake.

So I continued on, now racing on the “correct” course. I ended up passing one of the riders who passed me twice, Whit. When I did, I told him I was out of contention because of missing a turn. The last two laps were tough, but I tried to keep the pressure on, just to see what my time would be, even though I wasn’t in contention for any prizes. I ended up finishing in about 2:54:30. So adding 6 minutes for the course deviation, would still have to give me a respectable time compared to the other Pros/Semipros. Not bad for only mountain biking once in the past month and doing a four-hour ride the day before!