Pine Bluffs Mountain Bike Race

Pine Bluffs, Wyoming

9 June, 2001

This year I have become more fascinated by speed, in the sense that I would be willing to give up some endurance in exchange for a little higher top-end. Since my natural bent is towards outlasting people, that’s a major change in attitude. I’ve tried to do some things that would normally be considered as “speed work”, and I was interested in trying to go all out in a standard length “Sport Class” race – in other words, a short distance by my standards. Pine Bluffs, Wyoming puts on a nice little bike race, offering two distances for men – the three lap 15 mile race and the four lap 20 mile race. I opted for the three lap race, signing up in the “Veterans” category. Other Laramie riders mostly went for the four lap race – Kurt Tuggle, Nat Dyck, and Ed Sherline. Kelly Schalk and Becka Smith signed up for the 4 lap women’s event. The course is about 70/30 double track to single track, with lots of up and down without any extended climbing. It’s technical in a way that requires attention and fairly agile handling skills in order to go fast – consequently it was to be a challenge for someone of my skills.

The four-lap riders got sent off first, and the rest of us followed about 5 minutes behind. There were about 10 men in our group and I fell-in behind two young guys who blistered the opening section of single track. One guy rode off and I only occasionally saw him in the distance, and he ultimately finished about three minutes up on me. The other young guy had my number on the “technical” sections, but I got him on conditioning and power. I went as hard as I could make my body go, and except for five “over the bar” experiences (OTB), it goes well enough. I had caught up with Ed and was following him along when I just went over the bars in a superman pose and my bike ended up in small ravine. The other OTB experience were less spectacular, but no less irritating. By the last couple of OTBs, I’d gotten good at it and generally rolled to my feet and get back in the saddle before the dust has settled. In a sense, my experiment was a success – I found that I could go out as fast as I could go and not blow-up. I won the Veterans category and ended up second to a young guy in the 3-lap race. Kurt won the four lap race, Nat was second and Ed was third. Kelly won the women’s race in a time virtually identical to that with which Sarah Konrad won the race two years ago – Sarah is the reigning Collegiate Road Champion. Kelly is fast… Becka Smith ended up second. We all stopped off in Cheyenne to spend our winnings at a bike store – a fun time was had by all.

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