Roslyn Mountain Bike Festival

Roslyn's Mountain Bike Festival is new to the Indie Series this year. All the hype before the race was "old school course with lots of climbing and lots of twisty single track and a fun descent." Well, they didn't disappoint. It was all that with a huge heaping of dust to make it all the more fun. The race started with a quick flat section that quickly started to climb up what seemed to be about a 25% grade that was short but hard. It then wound around and began ascending for about a mile. After your heart and lungs nearly explode, you hit it hard through a twisty single track and then some more climbing, some more twisties and just when you think you're clear, one more short slog of a climb. The trail then dumped you into a fast then furiously twisty section spitting you out onto old fire road back to the start. All that in 4.5 miles and nearly 1000' of climbing.

The other promise from the organizers was beer. The winners would get beer. Seems like a fair thing to charge to the line for. So, some beer and some more points for the overall standings in the Series were the important things in the race. As always, I make a point of getting off the line fast, then settle into a good rhythm (hopefully). The first climb was jammed to the gills with riders grunting and huffing and puffing their way up. Our group caught the previous starters mid climb and things were clogged. I took to running again (seems to be a theme) and passed about a dozen riders and remounted when I saw some light. I did finally settle into a good rhythm, started to simmer down and focus. Half way through the second lap, I got passed by the series leader. I stayed on his wheel for awhile, but he started to gap me. I turned it up and kept him in sight. Then a local guy totally stomped on it and dropped me. He just ground his way up the hill leaving me to watch him go by. Luckily, I gained on the descent, grabbed a good wheel in the flats to hide from the wind and started the third lap out front again. This time, the leader got around me again and damned if that fast local guy didn't smoke me too. I put the hurt on myself to keep those guys close. We were all within 10 seconds of each other or so. I got close to the top of the last pitch and saw Vince, the leader, hunched over his bike with no chain. Good luck for me, bad for him. He encouraged me on, I yelled to him to start running! I nabbed the local guy in the descent, held him off and pulled in for the win.

I was brining home the beer! That was a good feeling. Now, when a promoter agrees to give out beer to the top placers, you figure it'll be good beer. We've seen some Redhook, some New Belgium and others, but Roslyn's race was the first time I've seen Bud Light handed out. And it wasn't just any old Bud Light, it was Bud Light LIME. I'm still scratching my head on that one. It's on ice now here at home. I'll have to give another report on just that adventure of consuming one of those suckers. Come on over if you wanna try one.

Last race in the Indie Series is August 10th up highway 410 near Greenwater. Love to have some bunnies join me for the day. It's a great race!

-mjc