Alice Petacchi is back from the wilderness of a non negative doping suspension with 2 wins at the Giro.  Tyler “We don’t need no stinking gears” Farrar is getting closer to uncorking a big one.  Yes indeed ths Giro is shaping up pretty good.

Closer to home i made it up to Logan Utah for round 4 of the ICUP (say that over and over a few times) for a bit of singletack fun.  I also had the pleasure of meeting our field reporter Brother Genco in person for the first time.  It was a really fun course with lots of wooded single tack and some grinder climbs to keep the pain level high.  My race?  Well lets just say I am the nail at this point in the season.  To hear from a hammer read on as Brother Genco tells us how the “We don’t need no stinking gears” crew rolls.

Brother Genco’s Tales of The Big Ring 801 Edition

Here we go up here in the mountains, Old Man Winter seems to have packed up his bags for good, meaning trails are open for mountain biking, and mountain bike racing has started.  With that in mind, I packed up the car and headed down to Utah for Wimmers XC, looking forward to some deeper fields, and hoping to see some friends I hadn’t seen in a while.  I got to the race site just as the sun was setting, and set up hobo camp while sucking down a PBR.  Three cheers to the secretary at the nearby hotel who was kind enough to let me drink more beer and watch basketball playoffs before retiring to the cold confines of my tent.

On race day I woke up and started what is becoming my “pre race ritual”, eating a peanut butter sandwich, warming up while pre-riding part of the course, and filling my ears with punk rock.  I lined up for three laps with the rest of the singlespeeders, and at the word “go” I took off.  We had to do a starter lap on one mile of doubletrack, and by the time we got to the “race laps” I was in the lead, closely followed by some dude from Jackson Hole.  At the first climb he passed me, and I shadowed him trying to figure out his strengths and weaknesses.  The next climb came on a ribbon of singletrack, which cut through a meadow.  I tried passing off the trail, but it seemed like my wheels got sucked down into the ground.  From that botched passing attempt, he managed to get a gap on me, which would only grow during the course of the race.

So that’s how things would stay, dude from Jackson Hole in the lead, putting more time on me, and me trying to fool myself that I could catch him.  The course was a solid mix of challenging singletrack through trees, and solid climbs on doubletrack.  I had forgotten how much a pain in the ass it was to pass folks in tight singletrack.  I’m sure I came off as an asshole when I shouted things like “coming up soon”, “looking to pass”, and “your other left”.  In the end I managed to cross the line in second place, and felt like the seven and half hours worth of travel time had been worth it.  So with my second race of the season, I racked up my second podium in as many races.

When I got back my car, I was overjoyed to see fellow Big Ringers, Holmes, Bad Blake, and none other than The Rev himself.  I had seen Holmes and Blake in many a fortnight, and immediately started to catch up with them before they raced.  During their races I managed to hang out in the feed zone, take some pictures, and do some cheering for the fast folk.  As a result of watching the pros race I’m pretty sure I missed my awards ceremony, but worse things have happened.  In the end Holmes took the win in the women’s pro field, and Alex Grant absolutely destroyed the men’s pro field.    After the race everyone hung around and chatted it up before heading their separate ways.  I packed up hobo camp, loaded the car up, and headed back north to the Big Sky.

The Nail