20th Annual Idaho City Excellent Adventure

Last Saturday we started our summer road trip with the drive south to Boise before Sunday's mountain bike race up in Idaho City. I haven't raced the mountain bike since April, which might have contributed to an above average case of nerves and "that guy looks fast"-ness. The race begins with a mass start Le Mans, and then rolls for about 1.5 miles before funneling into a steep, rutted moto trail at the bottom of a ~4-mile climb. I figured the entrance to the moto trail could matter a bit, so I hoped to hit it near the front and then climb as best I could. Including the road at the bottom, the climb covered ~1200 feet in 6 miles. It was mostly gradual, but had some steep sections.

I set the bike up well for the Le Mans and got myself in the front row. I got on the bike pretty easily in 2nd. The road section was somewhat chaotic, but I stayed in decent position and hit the moto trail in 5th. I immediately passed the guy in front of me, then the next guy got stuck in a rut and went down. I got around him ok, but the two leaders had a 20m gap by that point that I couldn't close down. I chased as best I could for a few miles, but the gap stayed about the same. Then my brain played a trick on me and convinced me that I had gone off course. I got confused and slowed down for a minute and the guy behind me caught up and went by.

As it turns out, this was a good thing. He was much better at the steady climbs than I am, and I had to completely bury myself to hold his wheel. I doubt I would have climbed that well on my own. After 15 minutes, we caught the guy in 2nd (who had lost the leader) and the three of us road together for a while. I yoyo-ed a bit, and almost lost them when I nearly crashed while trying to take a drink. But I noticed that I was doing better on the steep climbs than they were, so at the next steep singletrack section, I went by both of them and got a bit of a gap. I had 5 miles to go at that point, and managed to keep it together to finished 2nd overall, about 5-10 seconds up on 3rd, who had ridden just behind me the final 5 miles of the race. The winner finished 60 seconds ahead of me. It turned out it was Zach Vestal, who was Trek/VW team manager and is now tech editor at Velonews.

But since I was "just" an Expert, I got no love for finishing 2nd overall. I hate to criticize race promoters, and I do this knowing that I sound like an ungrateful and whiny prima donna, but why does the fact that some guy pays $150 for a license make a difference in how you treat them? The "pro" podium got cash; I got a water bottle and pair of size small gloves. And he didn't mention that I was 2nd overall. Well, he did eventually after I corrected him for saying I was 4th overall. I don't need the money or even a nice prize, but a bit of respect wouldn't hurt.

Case in point: they issued a little press release after the race which you can find at this link -- Idaho City Results

The section that discusses the winner says: "Although a solid pack chased him the entire race, Vestal broke away early and decisively and cruised in over one minute ahead of Josh Oppenheimer." That's true, he was over one minute ahead of Josh Oppenheimer. But Josh was 5 seconds behind me. It's not enough to be fast I guess.

Ok, whining mode off. It was a great race, and I had a blast.