I've done the Firecracker... 50mi, 10k+ feet of climbing.... in over 5 hours and I wanted to vomit at the end, I was destroyed. 100mi is just plain crazy (and probably fun) for a flatlander. Can't wait to hear the story. Good luck Kev!
Tinker said it was the hardest MTB race he's ever done. Travis Brown stopped after 2 loops, and around 30 of us suffered for 3 loops. Loop 1 was 23 miles and took me 4 hours and 8 minutes. 5+ mile climb to the top with 11-14% grades and a mile of big rocks at the end with no warm up at 50 deg temps at 6:00 am. I made a bad choice of trying to stay with the top 10 on the climb and couldn't catch my breath until the top and had fallen back to 25th or so. Bad news was yet to come, the terrain on the back side made South Mountain in Arizona were Kent, Deal, and Shim punished me look like Tranquility. To make it more fun it rained hard the night before to make it all more challenging. After getting my but kicked on loop one there was only 65+ miles of new trials left, new plan just try and finish. Loop 2 went much better, 37+ miles with very difficult terrain and long rocky climbs, knocked it out in around 4 hours flat. This loop would of been easily 3 1/2 hours or less if it was loop 1. So after 8 hours of long rocky climbs and scary descents I had to make the a decision, stop or go on. I looked at my # on my plate. It said 23, my anniversary is 10-23, my son Cole was born on 4-23 so I headed out for loop 3 38+ miles, 10 mile climb on a fire road, 8 miles of rocky single track down, 10 miles back up on a fire road and 10 miles back down with fire road, 3-4 miles of single track(ouch) and then paved roads back to the park.
95+ miles(probably 4-5 miles of hike a bike), 13,000+ elevation gain at 9000-12,500 elevation 12 hours and 18 minutes of suffering finished 23rd in overall in the men with 4 women ahead of me. Rode with the 5th place pro woman quite a bit, she defiantly made me keep going on loop 3 as we climbed back up together for a while. Thought I had 21st until the last downhill where 2 guys passed me but I think 23rd was meant too be. Jeff and Mike weren't able to make the cut off but hade good race.
Kevin, you are the man. Fantastic accomplishment. Your hard work and many many hours paid off. Next year do the Firecracker50 with me: you get to sleep in, it doesnt start til 11!
That nasty climb ending in a mile of rocks sounds like the Little French climb, sound right? Aren't you glad you have a 22t chainring?
That's freaking nuts man, sweet job. How many guys started? 23rd is amazing, there's uasually some pretty serious climbing talent at those events. Looks like I'll try and sit on your wheel at the 5-O.
I did my 52 mile 6k+ of climbing ride today on Trail Ridge Road. All on nice flat roads and at a crawl (12mph average). The 40mph+ descent was a blast but I'm spent. I can't imagine the suffering you just pushed through. Congrats!
7 comments:
Tinker said it was the hardest MTB race he's ever done. Travis Brown stopped after 2 loops, and around 30 of us suffered for 3 loops. Loop 1 was 23 miles and took me 4 hours and 8 minutes. 5+ mile climb to the top with 11-14% grades and a mile of big rocks at the end with no warm up at 50 deg temps at 6:00 am. I made a bad choice of trying to stay with the top 10 on the climb and couldn't catch my breath until the top and had fallen back to 25th or so. Bad news was yet to come, the terrain on the back side made South Mountain in Arizona were Kent, Deal, and Shim punished me look like Tranquility. To make it more fun it rained hard the night before to make it all more challenging. After getting my but kicked on loop one there was only 65+ miles of new trials left, new plan just try and finish. Loop 2 went much better, 37+ miles with very difficult terrain and long rocky climbs, knocked it out in around 4 hours flat. This loop would of been easily 3 1/2 hours or less if it was loop 1. So after 8 hours of long rocky climbs and scary descents I had to make the a decision, stop or go on. I looked at my # on my plate. It said 23, my anniversary is 10-23, my son Cole was born on 4-23 so I headed out for loop 3 38+ miles, 10 mile climb on a fire road, 8 miles of rocky single track down, 10 miles back up on a fire road and 10 miles back down with fire road, 3-4 miles of single track(ouch) and then paved roads back to the park.
95+ miles(probably 4-5 miles of hike a bike), 13,000+ elevation gain at 9000-12,500 elevation 12 hours and 18 minutes of suffering finished 23rd in overall in the men with 4 women ahead of me. Rode with the 5th place pro woman quite a bit, she defiantly made me keep going on loop 3 as we climbed back up together for a while.
Thought I had 21st until the last downhill where 2 guys passed me but I think 23rd was meant too be.
Jeff and Mike weren't able to make the cut off but hade good race.
Great Job Kevin!
23 must be your lucky number.
Sounds like the 5-0 will be a walk in the park for you after that.
Thanks for the post and wishing me good luck Ryan.
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Kevin, you are the man. Fantastic accomplishment. Your hard work and many many hours paid off.
Next year do the Firecracker50 with me: you get to sleep in, it doesnt start til 11!
That nasty climb ending in a mile of rocks sounds like the Little French climb, sound right? Aren't you glad you have a 22t chainring?
That's freaking nuts man, sweet job. How many guys started? 23rd is amazing, there's uasually some pretty serious climbing talent at those events. Looks like I'll try and sit on your wheel at the 5-O.
Very nice job Kev.
I did my 52 mile 6k+ of climbing ride today on Trail Ridge Road. All on nice flat roads and at a crawl (12mph average). The 40mph+ descent was a blast but I'm spent. I can't imagine the suffering you just pushed through. Congrats!
Kev
You're a stud. 'Nuf said.
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