SCOLETRAIN

Survival (Mohican) 100
To quickly sum up the weekend I'll start by saying that this was a very hard 9 plus hours in the saddle both mentally and physically. This race had some of the most awesome singletrack and climbing(11,000 ft)that I've ever rode along with beautiful sights and great race support from the volunteers. Saturday morning came too early as it stormed most of the night with bad thunderstorms until sunrise and we were guessing as to what the course conditions might be for the start. The forecast didn't look much better through the late morning, but the skies finally cleared allowing the sun to get the temps into the mid 80's with some good humidity. The first 50 miles was more of an ass dragging ride for me from the initial hill preem(that Lee Unwin should have won) a half mile after the start that sucked the life and any adrenalin from me for the first five hours. I've come to the conclusion that you always experience a bad moment when endurance racing and the Mohican was punishing me from the beginning. To try and feel better I got into a pace that felt comfortable and concentrated on just clicking off miles and with a good 3rd aid station stop (refueling with just about anything I could put in my stomach) I finally felt like I was back into a competitive racing mode. At that point in the race my goal was to finish strong and to get this race under my belt before the Lumberjack 100 in two weeks. All went well until about 25 miles to go when I had a bee sting me inside my jersey on a long slow climb. I can't type what I said next as it was not appropriate as I have had allergic reactions in the past and luckily I brought what I needed in my pack to take care of this without having my chest swell up along with the other bad symptoms that can come with a possible reaction. What's funny about this is that Lee Unwin and I had talked about broken chains and what we should have with us during the race if something happened to either of us the night before. Of course this conversation haunted us both as Lee broke his chain just before the halfway point and the repair didn't hold turning his great start to the day into a DNF along with a ride back to the start in some locals pickup truck. Eventually I finished 27th in the open class to claim my Mohican 100 pint glass as I rolled under the finish banner to chalk up my own personnel victory with a finish. Thanks to my sponsors: Specialized, Hayes Brake, Manitou, SUNringle and Ergon for great products that made this weekend fun and successful.