Wow! That was a hard 50 mile race. As I mentioned in my race preamble, this was my third weekend in a row racing a 50 mile mtb race. This was the shortest in distance (just over 48 miles) but the longest finish time by 30 minutes. It was 45 minutes longer than it took my last week when I won the Silver Rush 50 in Leadville. Hard day in the saddle at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

The race was nine laps and the heart of that being nine times grinding up onto Cougar Shadow and bumping your way across the techy trail section. Every lap that I did not leave skin or Stans back on the rock features I would breathe a bit easier.

It was already hot as we were gathered on the start line at 9 AM. I was super thankful I had Amber there to hand up bottles for the race. I often drink 3 or 4 bottles in a race this distance, but I knew that was not going to cut it today. I rode into the lead on the first lap. Perennial powerhouse JJ Clark was just seconds back as we started the second lap. We both had a big gap to anyone else. I pulled further into the lead as we hit the climb for round 2 of 9. It was going to be a long race urging myself on.

I was knocking down laps somewhere right around 30 minutes a pop. Although I was not feeling good from the heat I was moving my bike forward at a good rate. I looked forward to the second half of Cougar Shadow and the downhill Boulder Run every lap. Each lap I just focused on getting myself up the climb in a state that I could enjoy the downhill. I started lapping people on the second lap, and although of course I have no pleasure in seeing other people suffering, I will say it was motivation to keep pushing on because a lot of people were riding that felt a LOT worse than I did. Pretty sure there was some hard core soul searching going down on the race course.

Sweet relief on the last three laps! We got intermittent rain showers that brought clouds overhead and a touch of cooling relief. That was seriously a life saver. My last two laps my hands were starting to give out on Boulder Run. The little ollie ups that felt effortless at first were now humungous efforts. I would just pull up on the bars for all I was worth and really not sure if it would be enough to get the front wheel to clear whatever impeded me. It worked out. 48 miles, just shy of 18,000 feet of climbing, and 4 hours and 26 minutes to take the win, I would say we celebrated 100 in true bike racing style with Mr Andy Bohlmann, lots of suffering!

The best part of local racing is you don’t take a chance on what bar to go to afterwards. It was directly to McCabes from leaving the venue!

Thank you to Borealis bikes for being on hand and having water for us. That was HUGE help. I can’t wait to be riding the new Echo soon! Thank you Ascent Cycling for not just being a sponsor with a logo on a poster but really being at the races and making it happen for us all. Your efforts are noticed by us in the community and you will be supported in turn. Major thanks to my wife Amber Chambers. She is at all these races working registration and then comes out on course to give me bottles for 4+ hours. Talk about support. And THANK YOU Andy Bohlmann! I give you the most heartfelt accolades for all the years of bringing bike racing to Pikes Peak region. Well done Sir.