250 teams of riders. First day race plan from the debriefing is sunny and 50k distance up and over the 9,000 foot summit of the panorama ski resort and down to K2 Ranch.
The ride up was steep from the start - no warm up. It takes us 2 hours to reach the Col. Though now we have get up and to the top of the ridge. The trail now is unridable - everyone throws their bike on our shoulders and "hike a bike" the rest of the way up. We hike for over an hour and it starts to SNOW. We ride and hike the ridge line at 9k feet. When rideable the single track is lush, rooty and it's cold - we are under dressed - no jacket, no extra gloves - luckily have arm warmers.
Riders are skattered across the ridge except for the pros are already descending. We asking our new euro pals about epo connections.
We finally descend thru the wettest - root filled single track - we know now that we're in BC.
We get down and ride fast dirt roads to K2 Ranch. My brakes are torched and I crash running over a water diversion plank as we descend into K2.
We finish in 5 hours & 30 minutes, 27th place out of 100 in the 80 + open mens division.
Bike wash immediately, we connect with our mechanic, Sam, on loan from Lori - Team Chantry Fats from Pasadena. Lori is here with the family.
We meet a bunch of people from all over the world - gavin & adrian Team Canada, ben, jackson, rodney, sally etc...
The winners for the day - The Italian team aka 'the mtn goats' at 3 hours total time. Unbelievable........
