The race flyer started with the line "The Ride of the Valkyries promises to be the highlight of the Northern Colorado calendar with one of the toughest and most enjoyable courses on the circuit." That was a pretty strong statement, but it proved to be correct, for the most part. The "beautiful 12 mile climb" from 6700 ft tot he summit of Buffalo Pass in the thin air of 10,450 ft (3750 ft of vertical) was so head spinning that I had very little time to check out the views. I suppose I could have backed it off a notch, but then I might have not made any forward progress. Okay, it could have been worse – the climb was on a good quality gravel road. But, the 45 riders who lined-up at the start were mostly the hard-core, local racer types. They’d already seen the view thank you, and this race was all about bragging rights. I love being in Steamboat – there are more Moots YBB bikes on the roads/trails than any other make. I bet at least a quarter of the bikes in the field were Moots.

Just prior to the start I was visited by Jerry and Becky, friends from Laramie who were also visiting for the weekend. They too noticed all the hard bodies spinning around preparing for the start and seemed to be worried about me. I noted that the Moots factory riders were likely to win, as one did last year, and that the woman’s champ was the NCAA woman’s champion, Katherine Zambrana, from CU. I also made my brag that I figured I could finish near the winning woman. Well, I did manage to drop most of the women sufficiently on the climb that they were unable to catch me as I stumbled through the single-track. But just near the summit I managed to catch the one woman who had dangled about 50 yards in front of me throughout the 1.5 hour climb. I spoke briefly with her and it turned out to be the same Katherine Zambrana, collegiate national champ. As I gasped my questions, she chirped back happily – clearly un-taxed. She was planning to race the Mercury Tour of the Rockies there in Steamboat the next week, so she was taking it easy. We then entered the single-track, she rode away and that was that.

The single-track lasted for about 22 miles. This was not that "buff", roller coaster-type stuff. It was authentic backcountry, rocky, and rooty stuff. It had rained much of the day before so it was slick and slimy. Somehow I managed not to crash, unlike the week before at Winter Park, but I had a number of close calls. There was no place to rest on this course – first the climb, now this. Actually, getting tired like that can help me as I get so tired I can’t be tense and the bike flows better. I just got into some sort of zone and peddled along for what seemed like forever, seldom seeing any other riders or any trail markings. Eventually the trail turned up and crested out on the top of Storm Peak at the Steamboat Ski area. On this last climb I managed to catch about 4 people, but two of them dropped me on the way down. And surprise, I managed to catch and pass one person on the way down to the finish.

I finished up about 20^th overall, out of 45 total. I was 4^th in the Sport Vets (out of 7) at 3:37:27. I also managed to beat 2 of the 4 expert vets. The 3^rd place sport vet was but 50 seconds in front, and the first place sport vet was in at 3:20:02. The third place sport vet was Chris Caldwell and we commiserated at the end of the race for a bit. He lives in Estes Park, so the altitude sure couldn't have bothered him. The men’s and women’s winners were the same as last year, Doug Demusz and Katherine Zambrana, with times of 2:46:20 (!) and 3:27:57, respectively. I can see the 3:27 time, but the 2:46, how did he do that? This was a tough race – over 5000 feet of climbing and right about 35 miles. I had a bit of a cold, so it made it even tougher – still, I rank it as one of the hardest races I’ve ever done.

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