Tamarack, ID — I just got back from the Idaho State Cross Country Championships held at the Tamarack Resort. Even though I did the Tamarack Twister last season, today’s course was totally different and I was glad I pre-rode it yesterday. I’ve been feeling pretty good, but not great, but my main goal for this race was to get a good workout. Oh, and to stay on course…last year I unintentionally cut the course due to poor course markings, thus I had to disqualify myself. So this year I came up and pre-rode it so I knew exactly where to go during the race.
The race started out fast, as most mountain bike races do, but with less than 20 riders in the Pro/Semi-pro field, I didn’t worry about staying up front on our initial warmup loops around the Meadow. The first part of the course was on a newly cut trail that was somewhat loamy and loose. Lots of dust was kicked up by the riders ahead of you making it hard to see the terrain (use The Force, Luke). Coming down a short steep descent, I wanted to pass a rider. Since I had switched to tubeless tires, I didn’t care about getting flats. So off-trail I went! Wouldn’t you know it there was a 4 foot stick about 1.5″ in diameter sitting right there. My front wheel flipped it up and around and it went straight into my rear wheel! As my rear wheel came around, it jammed on the seat stays and I felt something on the back of my leg. I skidded to a halt. I had time to clip out, so I didn’t really crash. But I had to pull the branch out of my wheel then make sure I didn’t hork the wheel.
Surprisingly, nothing was seriously damaged. I could see a bent spoke, but it wasn’t broken. When I spun the wheel there was a small wobble, but without rim brakes, it didn’t matter! So I hop back on and start riding, trying to make up lost time. As I’m riding I feel this throbbing on the back of my right calf muscle. The next time I got a chance, I glanced down to notice blood oozing down my leg! I guess that was the end of the stick I felt hit the back of my leg. It didn’t hurt that bad and I could tell it was just a flesh wound, so I kept riding. By the second lap I was feeling better and rode stronger and passed a few people. I kept on passing people until things got so spread out that it was basically a time trial. There was one rider just ahead but I couldn’t catch him by the line. I ended up 6th, which I was happy with.