thank me with your hands

so, yesterday was the test of metal MMX (2010) in squamish that i competed in for the first time. having only pre-rode two-thirds of the course, and never having done it before i wasn't too sure what to expect of myself for a time, so i seeded myself at the 4.5 hour mark and then just rode at what i thought was a reasonable pace.

 

at first you ride uphill through town before hitting the trailhead, and i was amazed at how many people I had passed before we hit the trail. it was a little bit ridiculous to think that all those people had seeded themselves ahead of me, since there were only a few people that wound up passing me the entire time.

 

then we got into the first single-track to double-track before jack's trail and it was SO slow, we were almost crawling, i was not impressed. when we finally made it to Jack's trail, there were parts that were ALMOST a dead stop, but a slow pace throughout (still unimpressed :D).

 

then there's a fire-road to dead-end loop and i passed some more people before the dead end loop, which was a MAJOR let down. complete stop at least five times while waiting for people to clear sections of trail.

 

Thankfully, by the time I made it to the Rock 'n' Roll climb I had passed quite a few people, and one guy was kind enough to assume that I was a better climber than him and let me pass. To say that this section of trail is much easier on Mika's bike would be an understatement. I think that partially because of all the rest breaks I got throughout the race up to this point, I was feeling super fresh still, and the lighter bike + granny gear let me just cruise up the trail. Then it was Ryan's Rip where I passed some more people on the sweet turns, into Rollercoaster.

 

On the one tricky part of rollercoaster the lady in front of me slipped a gear and caused quite a pile up, but i hoped off the bike, jumped over her and got out in the lead again :D And the highlight of the race - as I was cruising the last bermed corners before hitting the streets again I took the inside line and passed a couple of lycra's and some kid yelled out "YEAAAAAH BAGGIESSSS!!!" to me. I chuckled as I exited the trail.

 

My first time through the feed zone I just cruised on by feeling like I'd barely done a warm up.

 

9 mile hill was not fun. Having never ridden it before, I had little idea what to expect other than a lot of uphill. I was very delighted when I arrived at a feed station around mile 5, where I feasted on some oranges, bananas, gatorade and water. Then I continued my zip up the hill until about mile 7 when my cranks loosened themselves and fell off :| Luckily, the FSA Gravity Light cranks only need a 5mm allen key to repair, so I found the little bolt that had fallen out after some searching and put it back together. It actually wound up being a nice break, and since I was SUPER hungry at this point, I feasted on my nutella sandwhich. This definitely cost me some time in the race, and I got passed by some people here, but I welcomed the break from the climb.

 

Anyway, then I kept climbing, up and up and up and up, before finally reaching the Rip and the Plunge (which I'd heard so much about before hand). The rip was awesome, as there were so many slow people sticking to the beaten path, and I'd just pop over to the other side, manual through some puddles and splash them while cruising on :D :D :D

 

Then I hit the plunge, and it was total mayhem! Pretty much every single steep roller, skinny ladder, corner with rocks, roots or anything else I would watch someone yell, crash and freak out in front of me and then ride around or over them and on my way. It was ridiculous and hilarious.

 

Then I got to the feed zone for the second time and was feeling pretty good, other than my super sore bum (next year, chamois + softer seat), so I ate some more oranges, bananas and then my support team gave me half a large beer (bad idea) and I started off for crumpit woods.

 

The beer hit my stomach and pretty much instantly turned into gas, so I spent the majority of cardiac hill in crumpit woods running my bike up the hill and burping up the beer (note: this was not particularly enjoyable). The nice part of this was that by this time there was almost no one around me, so I just cruised through at my own speed. The last part of the race is a lot of downhill single track to multi-use path for the last couple clicks, and I just cruised along that and across the finish line at 4 hours and 35 minutes. Considering how awesome I felt when I finished, I think it's pretty safe to say that I could quite easily lose 30 minutes off this time by :

 

a) riding harder now that I know how to pace it

 

b) seeding in a quicker group to avoid being slowed so much at the start

 

c) not having this be the first bike ride on a new bike I built for Mika (to avoid bolts loosening and cranks falling off)

 

d) drinking more water (other than the 4 cups I put back at the feed zones, I only drank .75L out of my camel back. which might be because this is the first time I rode with one :O )

 

d) no beer at the feed zone.

 

So, long story short, it was TOTALLY AWESOME and I'm stoked I did it!

 

1 canon 430ex at 1/4 and 105mm below camera between it and me, triggered by enlinchrom skyports

Done