Big Bear Lake, WV = Ultra MTB Race - No bears, just rocks

This photo link says it all, Rocks, rocks and more rocks.

Saturday August 7, 2010.

Is this Disney? Morgantown, WV. Home of West Virginia University and home to a super cool people transporter. It appears this thing was built in the 70's sometime, but the cars are in nice shape and running one about every 5 min as we sat in traffic trying to short cut through town and by pass freeway construction. What a great idea and way to reduce parking and students driving around campus.

Orange Cones. Tim and I headed down on Friday afternoon and aside from running into tons of construction traffic on the freeway before Morgantown we had no problems finding Big Bear Lake.

Registration is where? We checked in at the nearby, inexpensive and well cared for Microtel and headed over to register, since there was no pre-registration and we hoped to be one of the first 100 to register and receive a t-shirt. After driving right past the "security" booth and right past what ended up being the registration tent, we got to see a little of the park.

After speaking to a local woman (we are not ashamed to ask directions) we sought out the Bear Lake Store and where registration might be....they said we passed it, it was back at the tent near the "security booth", we head back to "Security" they say they don't know, but it's usually over there and that so and so was having a party there now and we might check there. Ha ha -
We get over to what looks like some picnic tables and see a guy, meet a guy, that ends up being the owner of this fine 5000 acres of property and the person we need to speak with about registration. We chat a bit, Mark was his name and he was so nice and friendly, took our 70 bucks our completed Registration forms and waivers and preceded to give us some inside scoop on the trail and even hand drew us a map of the course.

It's GO Time. We set a 7 a.m. wake up time and headed out of the hotel a little late, just after 8 a.m. It ended up being plenty of time to get back over to the course, acquire our race numbers, pick up our 70 dollar t-shirts, install the largest number plates you have ever seen (pay 5 bucks ea. to rent them from the WV racing club) prepare our gear, throw some chain lube on, adjust shock/tire pressure and go spin. Tim and I even had plenty of time to get a short warm-up ride up the road, that ran parallel the trail. We four-wheeled it into the woods and onto part of the trail we would race. What did we learn about this short section of trail, there is a shitload of rocks and tight twisty trail that has no sense of rhythm whatsoever.
About 8:55 Mark the owner, called all the cyclists to join-up while he stood on a picnic table to thank sponsors, give us general instruction, tell us to be careful, have fun, highlight the trail layout and water stops. About 9:10 a.m. less than 100 of us were off and running like wild turkeys.
Our first set of trail and dirt we encounter is just littered with giant rocks of all angles and shapes. We dip down into a dry creek bed to wheelie up over some poorly placed trees as I watch some guy to my left forget to pull up and endo his face into the other side. Some elbowing, some "hey on your left", "passing" etc and we get into the real single track of this crazy place. Tim is long gone as I struggle to find a comfy gear, rhythm and my legs.
 

This place is not for the meek. I was really having a hard time trying to relax over and around all these rocks and got very frustrated with my first 40 min of riding, some shifting issues, sticks in the back wheel, not being able to hold the wheel of those passing me, my right foot coming out of my new pedals.Then I got to the section of trail where it was way over my confidence, giant rocks, with no sign of what was on the other side. What was on the other side? giant drops. Giant drops I wasn't interested in taking on or having any part of....also was this giant section of rocks where you were supposed to I imagine, bounce your pedals, bar ends, elbows and hips off this drop in between but it was so narrow, I actually had to hop off, and guide my back wheel solo down through it.
Finally, after running into a guy we met at dinner on Friday, and throwing a short temper tantrum(how mature), I was off and running to relax, enjoy the race and find my rhythm on a climb catching and passing him, eventually passing two others and another and then running into Tim on a double track road, at the first water stop (a guy in a pickup with water). Tim and I took off, chatted some and he paced us back up to race speed. We traded off a few times during the race when each of us felt bad, the other one worked up front. We recognized we were rolling around to the finish area, near the end of our first 25 miles.

Last 25, Still no Bears. I told Tim, I had to adjust my front fork pressure (I took out 20 lbs) and soften the back shock just a click or two, fill up with go juice, pee and we'd be on our way. It was a little long, but, we got out and got back up to speed, quickly. Tim drove the pace hard till he started to crack and I took over and tried to push it where I felt good. We both were just riding at our limits at times over these trails and rocks. At one point, just when I thought I had the hang of it, in a valley up and over some crazy giant rocks we had already seen on the first 25, but this time we were going up the 4.5 mile hill instead of descending. It was way harder than we thought and just as I almost conqured the perfect line through the rocks, Tim broke his chain. It's a good thing we were riding together, his strap had let loose of his spare tube, tool, and levers and I had lost my bottle with my other go juice, good think I had on the 70 oz camel.
With another 15 or so to go, we gassed it back up to catch the two skinny racers and guy with streamers on his bars. We got the streamer guy back and one of the other skinny racers, at the top in the pine forest, but never got close enough to see the other skinny guy.

Not Just Tires.
Commercial interruption; Tim and I have both been running Kenda MTB Tires, tubeless all year. I had on the Kenda Small Block 8's 2.1 (tube'd versions, w/Stan's - about 500 grams ea.) and they were amazing. I began to trust them more and more, worrying less and less about ripping out the sidewall or getting a flat. They were as fearless as I was, the more I trusted the bike, the more I trusted the tires, the faster I went. They were the perfect tires for this race and course. I think the only thing I would change is to run a slightly lower pressure than I was running them around 35 psi. It's been tough for me, switching from riding a hardtail for over 10 years to a dual suspension and going tubeless. It's been a bit of an experiment each race with fork pressure, frame shock pressure and tire pressure. I am getting the hang of it I think.
Last Few Miles.
We knew we were getting close to the end of the course, as we descended one of the craziest, fastest, rockiest, downhill descent I have ever flown down on a bike. It was forever and required full focus and the ability to not only look way down the rock/scree field, but look down in front of your tire. By the time we reached the bottom I hollered out to Tim I had to stop, my left quad, hands and forearms were toast. He was in the same boat and agreed. We had a laugh, looked back up what we just came down and couldn't believe our eyes. Crazy shit. I guess somewhere along the last 25 miles, my 705 missed out on a few miles, since we got closer to civilization, campers and cars, we both realized the end was near as I pushed the pace. Tim and I rolled up beside each other for the final roll in to the covered finish Tent, I thought we were going to ride in side-by-side, Tim had other plans and blew by me, to beat me in the finish. He was racing open sport and I was in the old guy masters division. How did we fare? Still here? Tim took 19th in the Mens Open Sport and I got Third in the Masters Division. Not bad for two guys that never ride trails or terrain even close to this on our home trails. I received this sweet ass beer stein and 50 bucks in gift certificates from Wamsley Cycles, a local shop and race supporter.
Feet up, feeding the black hole.

There was an amazing spread of food waiting for us after we changed clothes and got cleaned up. There was a keg of quality beer, brownies, burgers, fruit, Gatorade, cold water, cold pop. Some great post race conversation with a few of the WV regular racers and some Ohio guys that also made the trek to race. One of the best post race result systems I have ever seen, this year (Lumberjack had a nice one too). Basically we could actively see recent finishers and overall results from each category on this computer screen. The guy even printed out a copy of all the results for anyone that asked - awesome - other promoters take note. What more can you ask for, aside from less rocks. Tim is a beast and it was my best MTB finish of the season.