Shale Shaker

[RJHenry]

I spent 10 minutes on the first hill reattaching a shroud after peeling it off on a tree. Otherwise, the first hill was challenging but I conserved energy and made it up relatively unscathed.

Found the first 10K extremely hard on the shoulders, kept dialling out my new damper until my arms didn't constantly ache anymore.

Made it to the checkpoint at 12:24pm, 1.25 hours of riding. "looked pretty tired" reported the sweepers later. Was given the choice to continue or follow the Ladies / Beginners course back. Considered it briefly, but didn't get up at 5:30 and drive to Oldman in order to jam out... carried on.

Got stuck in a rooty mud mess climbing up out of a rooty mud mess at about 12 km mark, 12:56pm, 1.75 hours riding. Was lapped by Jason and Bobby at this point... not disheartened.

Found Kevin with a broken case at 1:10pm. Found a very deep, very sticky mudhole at 1:17pm. Called to Kevin, but he either didn't hear me or wisely ignored me...

Got out of the mudhole at 1:48pm. Extraction included my recovery strap and a tree and a lot of heaving, sweating, and swearing. 10 or so lappers went by me.

The following two hours (10.7 km) were not particularly eventful, other than "bulldog or die" hill. Two intermediate guys came up on me right before it, helped me over the cliff, and then carried on. Endoed once and lay under running motocycle for a lot of seconds until it stalled.

Arrived at the "midpoint" at 3:42pm. Three dead bikes - one radiator hole, one clutch, one unknown. Ate, drank, was merry. Had half of my 3 liters left!!!

Climbed up into the alpine - long, rocky hills with softball sized rock cubes - just hard enough to be a ton of fun! Beautiful alpine, views, terrain... WOW!
Very long ridges, lots of sidehilling (what happens if you weave off the sidehill trail?)
Long descent home - a few more bulldogs for a timid guy like me.

Still descending, terrain more open, picking my way. Sweepers caught up to me about 5 km before the finish. Started pushing a bit more when they joined me, just made more errors. Didn't exactly love the last 5 km, but made it.

Finish line: 6:08 PM. Disappointingly small crowd of cheering fans (for clarity - zero cheering fans).

43.1 km. Seven hours. One jammed finger, no crash damage. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

[5Lgreenback]

That was much harder than I expected. Being my first XC and second ever race, I was on the beginners loop. I can only imagine the loop the rest of you guys had to do. That was the hardest 25km I've ridden.

I must have fallen at least a dozen times, took several long breaks cause I just didn't have the strength left to get my bike back on the trail, let alone re-attempt the obstacle that just knocked me off. Got a branch so twisted up in my chain/swing arm/ sprocket that it took me 25 mins on the trail side to remove it. It seems like 80% of the loop was off-camber or side hilling.

On one side hill my bike fell down and the throttle grip somehow got pinned in the dirt at full open, I of course was falling just above my bike and happened to notice in the nick of time that the arm I was reaching out to brace my impact with was about to grab the rear wheel and sprocket spinning at limb shredding speeds. Thankfully I tucked my arm in and was able to roll over the bike unscathed.

I made it back in time for cut off but I opted out. I could barely stand up. If I was on the A loop I think I would have needed an air lift out. I was riding injured, and sick, but that course would have kicked my *** regardless.

[cerealkiller]

Is anyone else having problems checking the results of this race?

When I go to the CMRC site all I can see is "intermediate kids" results. Series results only shows the first two races. Seems like a long time to wait for the results to be posted...

[cerealkiller]

Nevermind. Just figured out you can check the bar code results on the AMSA website.

Of the juniors that finished the race, turns out I was last...

[dirtyboy]

Nevermind. Just figured out you can check the bar code results on the AMSA website.

Of the juniors that finished the race, turns out I was last...

Finishing that race is a good accomplishment. Kudos to you for finishing!