PMBAR 2023

 

Here I found my self once again heading south for the Pisgah Productions - Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race. After my last attempt I was not sure if I would ever do it again. It was a terrible effort on my part. Then one day I was talking to my teammate from the last attempt, Jason O, and for some reason it sounded like a good idea to sign up again. It had been two years and I'm sure I had a couple beers, but the plan was made to sign up. I had a lot of hope to be in a lot better condition by race day, but that never really ended up working out the way I had hoped. Leading up to the race I was realizing my lack of training was going to be an issue and then I noticed that I was signed up for War Daddy the weekend before. War Daddy is a 68 mile race with 9000 ft of elevation that I still need to cover on here. The combination sounded like a recipe for disaster. 

Dirty South Roubaix 2023

 Dirty South Roubaix 2023 was the start of my "season". I have not had much of any seasons over the last 2-3 years. A few races here and there with more of an event type attendance. Anyone who has been around my circle also knows that my fitness level has decreased tremendously over those same years. I am ready to see if I can get back closer to where I was before these last 2-3 years. I won't say I have been doing an awesome job of making this happen, but I have been increasing the effort.

Thankfully my entry from last years race was transferred to this year. This gave me a carrot to look forward to. I am not where I would like to be, but had nothing to loose and figured I would see how the day would go. At the very least it would be a good training ride to help keeping me moving forward. The weather for Friday was not cooperating very well for my plan, so we made some adjustments. We had a great day heading to Alto Pass. Not exactly what one would say is good for making a great race, but I already knew this was less of a race in the typical sense anyway. We stopped at a couple wineries and breweries on our way, including the new St. Nicholas Brewing location where the packet pick up was located this year. I liked that it was a lot closer to the venue that before and there was a lot of room for packet pickup to happen.

I found a VRBO nice and close to the race venue. It was great not having to get up as early to get there and get ready in the car. The bad part was that I didn't get to run in to a lot of the people before the race that I normally would have. I didn't do a lot of warm up and even got to the starting line later than I would have liked. This had me lining up way farther back than normal, but that was not completely bad. Once the race started the bottle neck was way slower than I expected and I was way back in the pack. This kept me from going too hard at the start, but also kept me from benefiting from a bigger pack.

All the rain from the day before didn't seem to make the conditions too bad. Only a few wetter spots and some of the gravel was a little harder to roll through. I tried to not go too hard and maybe I went a little slower than I should have, but with the legs, I didn't need to go too hard anyway. I found wheels and groups to hop on as I could. The first climb never seemed to end, but I was fairly happy with how I kept moving. I bombed down the back side and was out of the road before I knew it. I grabbed a wheel or two, but had to let them go when it felt like I was going too deep. 

Maybe I should have stopped at the first rest stop, but I didn't really need anything. Sometimes just getting off the bike helps and other times it makes things worse. The levee was a struggle for me this. I didn't find many wheels and everyone was pushing harder than I wanted. I think everyone I passed at the rest stop ended up rolling by me on the levee. I did hop on to the back of a group near the end. The next road section I let everyone go to take my vest off. I was getting too hot.

This next climb I knew would be very tough. There were some people around so I know I was not the only one suffering. Once at the top I hopped back on and kept moving forward. I did better in this section that I expected and climbed everything else. Bombing down the last hill there were a couple horses coming up the hill and I had to slow way down and see if they wanted me to stop. This was a horrible place for me to meet them. The best things I did all day was coast down hill. I was feeling pretty good back on the pavement and started rolling better. I linked up with two guys and we were moving along good. 

One fell off at some point and it was just two of us. I tried to pull and he didn't seem interested so I just sat back there. Eventually he moved over so I would pull and after resting a little he took off and dropped me. Guess he didn't like me on his wheel, but I did try to work together. Eventually there was a good sized group of riders that I could hop on with. I stayed at the back because I didn't think I would hang very long, but they varied the pace good enough that I could stay with a few of them for a little while. I linked up with a Rollfast guy and we hung out for several miles.

The rest of the group would get bigger and smaller as we rolled along. We separated a few times but kept joining back up. I stopped at the last rest stop because I was running out of water and starting to feel like a cramp might be close. I did good and kept myself from grabbing the beer and only got some water and orange slices. Off I went ready to be done. Somehow I linked back up with Rollfast guy as we turned right for the last part. We went a little ways and he said he was going to slow up and I should go on. I kept moving forward the best I could. 

I came up on the deep creek crossing and rolled through as some were dismounting and trying to figure out how they were going to cross. This let me catch up to some new guys that I had seen on and off all day. I was doing every thing I could to hang on to the wheels as we cycled through. I was thinking I was going to let them go and the one in front of me let up for me to pull. I tried to keep the same pace, but some how I pulled away from them all. I'm sure it had to do with me being ready to be done. Somehow I find a little extra energy when I know I'm close. The last climb really hurt, but I kept moving the best I could and finally turned the corner toward the finish line. I could see the wife standing there waiting so I gave everything I had left to try and pop the best wheelie I could. I was very sub par in my opinion, but thankfully the picture looks good. That is all that really matters right??

This was by far my slowest time for this race even with some of those years being on the SS. But, I really can't say that I'm mad about my day. I was expecting to be over 5 hours, so was pleased when I was under. I didn't really show up expecting a good result so that was not an issue. I'm sure I could dig in to overall times and see that it was a fast year, but really it doesn't matter. I'm slow and fatter than I should be and I did better than I expected. It was a good day to be on a bike. After hanging out with people that I don't see near often enough, we headed out to Blue Sky to hear some music, drink some wine and watch the sun go down.

Sunday morning we woke up and went just up the road to check out a natural bridge. It was a very short trail, but a cool little site. Then we headed in to town for some breakfast at our favorite breakfast place Cindy B's Cafe. Then we made a short drive over to hop on part of the Tunnel Hill State Trail and put in a little ride. This was a recovery ride for me and Becky's first ride outside for the year. Weather was great and the company was even better. I could definitely handle more race weekends like this. Bikes, Beer and my babe. I want to thank everyone who has supported me. Of course my wife for always pushing me to ride my bike. Cycling Solutions, Twin Six, Honey Stinger, ESI grips, Christopher Bean Coffee and CarboRocket.

#teamcycsol

#cyclingsolutions

#esigrips

#twinsix

#ridemetal

#hshive

#honeystinger

#christopherbeancoffee

#truckerco

#truckercoposse

#carborocket