Bavarian Bike & Brew Fest 06/06/2009

Last year was my first season mountain bike racing, and one of my most memorable races was at Leavenworth. This is the point in the series where we get into REAL mountain bike racing. Last year I flew down the downhill portion of the course with almost reckless abandon having never even pre-ridden the course. I almost paid for that naivete when I launched off a sizable water bar and landed a front wheelie at speed that was only millimeters from becoming an endo. I survived my one lap in tact unlike another fellow racer who decided to leave the relative safety of his bike and pummel the hill with his body ending his season. That did leave an impression on me and made me rethink my racing strategy. My new tactic coming into the race this year was to pound the uphill half of the course and take it easy on the way down to avoid ending up in traction. This strategy seemed even more sane to me when my group was delayed from starting for about 45 minutes while 2 beginner women were carted off the hill and taken away in ambulances.

The course was finally cleared to go, the weather was great with the sun beaming down on us in a friendly way; not baking us too much. The call to start came over the walkie-talkie and we were off. Some 50 yards up the dry, rutted, dusty fire road I came to the first obstacle. Joel was perched on the side of a hill a few feet above the course trying to catch the attention of TAI riders. I quickly averted my eyes surely saving myself from a nasty fall into a rather deep rut. My energy levels seemed good as I ground my way up the first couple miles of the climb. I was in my happy place when all of a sudden from out of no where, Francisco came blowing by with a "HEY CHRIS!" Jiminy Christmas that guy has been getting faster with every race. I asked him what took him so long. He responded by quickly pulling out of sight.

With the fire road gone we got into single track with the hill sloping up to our left and down sharply to our right. Coming around the backside of the hill the sun got more intense and no longer seemed so friendly. The course snakes its way up to the top without any switchbacks. At the top of the course there is a short flat section, maybe 1/2 a mile long. As I got to the end of the flat section, I heard short, loud tweets from a whistle near the water station right before the start of the downhill section. The watering hole came into sight, and sure enough, there was a referee decked out in his uniform, blowing his whistle and animatedly swinging his arm in circles directing riders down the trail.

The downhill started with a little creek crossing, then it continued down more hard packed single track with lots of swoopy turns (nothing too tight), a few more stream crossings, and of course a few water bars thrown in for good measure. About half way down there's a clearing that offers fantastic views of the valley below. I stuck to my strategy and took it easy going down. I made a point not to hold anyone up by getting off the trail whenever anyone came from behind. At one point about 1/3 of the way down I got off my bike to let a longer train of riders go by. Across from me was another rider doing the same thing. When the last rider came by I noticed he did not rush to get back on his bike. I asked if he was ok. He said no and held up a hand that was cocked at a funny angle due to a broken wrist that was red and swollen. I told him I'd let the crew at the bottom know he was hurt. Off I went again even more determined to go slowly. At about the half way point I came across someone with a walkie-talkie and relayed information about the injured rider. Not much later Bob came blasting by. I gave my usual "HEY BOB" as he disappeared leaving me to eat his dust.

At the bottom of the hill the single track ended at the fire road we started on. As I started my second lap, there were about 6 riders in view slowly chugging up the hill. I kicked into high gear and blew by the riders. I kept up a good pace and caught back up with Bob about 2/3 of the way up the hill. We stayed together for about 5 or 10 minutes before he got tired of my chatter and once again left me in the dust. I ended my 2 laps with an average lap time of 57 minutes, 2 minutes faster than my time for 1 lap last year. I am very pleased with this time considering my slow descents. I am happy to say that no TAI riders (as far as I know) broke any bones this year. However, there was a fair amount of carnage among other riders with at least 9 serious injuries. The moral of the story....know your limits, pre-ride, and be safe...relatively safe, bike racing isn't exactly without risk, which is one of the things that makes this a fun sport! ~ Chris L.

The course was an 8.6 mile loop with 1800 ft of elevation gain in the first 4 miles then 1800 ft descent back down to the start. Beginners raced 1 lap, sport 2 laps, and experts and open 3 laps.

Recap of Placings:

Jr Boys Beg 10 & under (1 lap)
4 Daniel McGee

Jr Boys Beg 11-14 (1 lap)
6 Jackson Burklund
7 Keegan Fitzpatrick
15 Aaron Agudo

Beg Men 35-44 (1 lap)
7 Troy Hopwood
13 Jeff Osborne

Jr Boys Sports <18 (2 laps)
6 Erik Beattie

Sport Women 35+ (2 laps)
12 Jenn Sinclair

Sport Men 35-44 (2 laps)
5 Henry Shaw
32 Bob McGee
36 Chris Liebsch

Sport Men 45+ (2 laps)
5 Russ Moul
11 Francisco Pons

Sport Single Speed (2 laps)
13 Gavin Spomer

Expert Men 35-44 (3 laps)
2 Pat Fitzpatrick

Expert Men 45+ (3 laps)
1 Vince Haag

Open Men (3 laps)
5 Matt Lynch