Greenbrier Challenge

I see a recurring pattern in this year's MTB races. It goes like this: Nice weather week of the race until day before, then rain/thunder storms drench the course creating more challenges than necessary. Camp Hilbert was wet but not too muddy but that could have had something to do with the temp. at start time, ~32 degrees. Twisted Tire was a sloppy mud-fest and of course this week, Greenbrier. I stuck with my plan from last year to head up there early, pre-ride the course for my warm-up and then do the race which was only one lap for we old fart, I mean, Beginner Men 40-49.

The pre-ride was wet, very wet, with streams running down the race course. BTW, I started my pre-ride just after 8:00 a.m. and finished around 8:50 so I had about an hour to chill 'til the gun sounded at ~ten. I wanted to take it easy and pick where the best lines were on the course. I lost it once on the last big downhill heading down to the lake but bailed out early enough to land on my feet thus no injury/harm. There were only fourteen of us at the start so I guess you might say I had delusions of grandeur given that I finished seventh out of nineteen last year in my first MTB race. I was hoping for a top five placing or may even top three.

If you haven't ridden Greenbrier let me tell you the there are rocks. Not big sharp pointy rocks but rocks just the same staring at you ready to knock you off your line or over the bars if you misjudge. There are two rock gardens, the first downhill on an "S" turn and the second a long uphill drag that gets steeper the further you go. The course is tame enough at the start, beginning on top of an earthen dam that forms the lake and then flowing up into the hills on a gravelly fire road. I was pushing past a few folks on the uphill gravelly fire road when someone started an Artie Johnson imitation and swerved right to left and ran me off the road. I recovered OK but lost my "mo" don't you know. On the run into the first rock garden there were a few "log drop- offs where a log was buried in the trail and then it dropped a foot or so. Going downhill on these it leads to jumping to keep yourself upright/smooth so on one of these I did a long jump and then coasted down the hill to the beginning of the rock garden. Unfortunately, my sweet jump cause my chain to jump as well so I had to stop to pop back on my chain. Just as I started to get going a "conga line" of guys from my race came along. It was four or five guys that I waited for but having been slightly upset about the chain I found it easy to ride through the rock garden, well not easy but I made it through fairly quickly for me. Once out of the 1st rock garden the next obstacle was a stream crossing which was uneventful and then a rocky climb up to the pond. I was able to pass a couple guys on this climb and then head to the big one.

The course has one steep climb that most of the beginner's walk up mainly because the walking traffic makes it difficult to ride up especially with the logs planted at angles on the climb. I rode up farther than I expected and passed a few more folks before I got off and walked the last bit of steep rocky stuff. There was more climbing on rocky stuff that wasn't so steep and I passed a whole gaggle of folks here as I rode up to the top. On top the course runs along a ridge which is double track with no rocks or roots so , of course, the course designers chose to challenge us with log obstacles. There were none the size of a church like at Twisted Tire so they were all negotiable. As I was nearing the end of the ridge and beginning of the uphill rock garden I heard someone shout out on your right. The voice sounded familiar but I was to focused on the race to think who it sounded like. I moved over to let the guy pass. He thanked me quite nicely so I looked up to reply and recognized the jersey of my friend Doug Pepelko who was doing the enduro race. I gave him a shout, something like "Go Doug!" to which he pumped his fist, so that was cool.

Entering the rock garden I found that I was closing the gap on my friend but I never completely caught him because he went past a couple of guys and left me to pass them. I rode up to the point where they were walking and then dismounted and walked behind them. It wasn't very far to the top and we all remounted and headed down to the fire road.

One guy from the race in front of me and I kept passing one another. He would fly by me on the downhills and I would blast past him on the climbs. Unfortunately for him I got to the campground descent before he did. As I was heading down this treacherous, muddy, rocky, nasty descent to the lake I heard a couple of folks behind me. The trail was a stream on my pre-ride but I guess the water made it down to the lake so it was no longer running water. It was more like pools of standing water. I heard one of the folks telling the other guy that he would pass but it's too narrow. I apologized but continued down because if you try to stop or swerve on this descent it can be disastrous. They flew by me close to the bottom but I was going so fast they didn't pull away. Along the lakeside there are a few ups and downs that take you over another earthen dam and then finally to the finishing chute. I passed one of the mad bombers on the dam along with one of the guys from my race. I passed the other mad bomber on the little climb just past the dam. From there my intent was to not let anyone pass me to preserve my placing. As I came around the last turn and down onto the finish chute I shifted to the big ring and sprinted for the last hundred yards or so. I was dying but didn't hear anyone coming so I sat down and motored through the finish. My watch said 37:38 had expired or something like that. I was giddy because last year I did this race and my time was 41:26. I knew from last years results that a 37 and change would have been at worst third and maybe second. Alas, it was not to be. I looked around and saw several guys from my race standing around recovering. I thought OK, maybe fifth? One thing I like about Greenbrier is that they have a PC or something that they enter the time you finish, it prints out the information and they instantly post it on a board near the finish line. I went over to see the results and I finished seventh. I was pretty happy with my time, almost a four minute improvement over last year and I had a clean run, i.e. no crashes so everything is good. My hat is off to all the guys who raced and provided that higher level of competition. Maybe next year I can get that higher placing. Ciao!