The Second Half

5:50am out the door
The Rig was my weapon of choice this morning. 4.25 hours of ride time. Then, a one billion calorie burrito from the Burrito Bar, 32oz of a sugar-infested recovery drink (read – Pepsi), 2 liters of water, a bag of trail mix – and I feel fine. The ol’ knees are a bit sore, but that will subside by the time I wake up tomorrow.

I didn’t GPS the ride because I don’t have one. But if I had to guess, it was roughly 35-40 miles, 5,000+ feet of climbing, 20 or so different trails with about 3 miles of doubletrack, and thank you KARMA for no freakin’ mechanicals. One thing I thought about on the ride – a lot - is ‘Mountain bike races feature too many racing categories’.

Here’s my point:
At races, it always cracks me up when amateur racers brag about their class results, when in fact they were 46 minutes, and 156 places behind the top riders on a 15 mile course. Nice job slick, here’s your medal, now go back to your bike shop and demand discounts because you are “sick fast” in the Men’s 19-29, Rigid Single speed Category with 14 other competitors. What the F*ck Eva’. What happened to survival of the fittest? What happened to aspiring to running with the big dogs, but at the end of the race that you just lost by 46 minutes – taking solace in knowing that you are really just another rider who is there because you love to ride. Isn’t that enough? Glory is for the Olympics, not your local race scene.

Maybe people need to be rewarded to stay interested. Maybe race organizers feel that classes are necessary so that groups of people with similarities should compete against each other so that they get the same “experience” that the Pros get. I could be sold on arguments for both of those points to some degree.

I digress, it’s time for the weekend……One Tecate, two Tecate, three Tecate - MORE!