Another year another PMBAR, this is always a race I look forward to. You never know where you’re going to be going, how long you’ll be out there, how much you’re going to hate riding your bike at some point during the day, the only thing you know is that you’re most likely going to ride your bike all day with a good friend and its going to be tough. This year would not let me down. My normal partner for this event, Andy, couldn’t make it down this year so I enlisted Wes from Sycamore to be my partner. The challenge here is that Wes doesn’t ride a single speed, so I decided I’d ride a geared bike. This would be my first time racing a geared bike since PMBAR 2012 I think when I blew out a rear shock during the race and had all kinds of other issues.

During the racer meeting, Eric, the race director repeated on multiple occasions to “Read your passport…all of it” which made me think there was something a little tricky in it. As it would turn out there were different “off limits” sections than previous years and a little Prolog loop that tripped a lot of people up. Heeding the advice we got the passport and took a minute to read through pretty carefully. We came up with a plan and headed out.

1st up was the prolog loop, up lower black mtn to thrift cove and then back up lower black to officially start. When we started up there was all kinds of people clustered around trying to decide what way to go, we felt pretty good we had it figured out so we went on. After hanging the right on thrift we had all kinds of teams coming at us, some of which I was really surprised at.

Anyhow we started back up Black mtn to start the race for real, made a few passes and caught up to a group of 4 which included some strong riders. We then learned this was the front of the race, so we settled in with them for a while. Everyone was pretty content talking, we actually discussed route choices a little as it would turn out we were all heading the same way something that tends to be reaffirming in this race. After a few minutes Wes and I went to the front of the group, probably for different reasons, I was trying to back the overall pace down just a little knowing we were going a little harder than my body really wanted this early. That lasted for a little while but nearing the top, Jacob and his partner came around and made a small acceleration and our group of 6 turned into a group of 4.

We rolled into the first checkpoint, did our things, and started on to #2. Still mostly a group of 4. Heading to #2 all we had to do was take Squirrel Gap out to where it intersects Riverside and make a right. Well this is an area of the forest that people don’t normally ride bikes so we got a little antsy and made a wrong turn and ended up riding all of the Riverside trail, which include deep creeks, tons of downed trees, overgrown trail, just not a good situation. Finally we got to the checkpoint and realized we went the wrong way, so at least we could go the right way on the way out. We left just a couple seconds behind Jacob and his partner. However this was long enough for us not to see them around a couple turns. This allowed us to make a wrong turn and lose them. Once we figured that out it was time to slog up Bradley creek and its 12 river crossings along with all kinds of downed trees.

I could feel the energy draining quickly but for some reason didn’t take that opportunity to eat more. Anyhow, we made it up to 1206, one of the main FS roads in the area, and it was decision time. We took a look at the map and decided we’d do the short out and back to the overlook on Slate Rock and then do a hike a bike up to Sassafras gap on Laurel mtn before heading to the last mandatory point.

After the short hike up to the overlook, I was starting to come apart. Energy levels were low, hard to get the heart rate up, the feelings of bonking were strong. I tried to start forcing more food but it was too late. We started up Pilot Rock to make the hike to what would have made the 5th checkpoint for the 2 hour time bonus. Based on how I was feeling I wasn’t sure we were going to make it there and back in under 2 hours so we decided to leave that one out there and head for the final mandatory point. There was still a lot of riding and a lot of singletrack left to get there.

We headed up South Mills, picked up some water in the river, up Buckhorn, right on Black Mountain, straight onto Buckwheat, to Bennet Gap. The slog up and over Black mountain to Buckwheat was rough, power was pretty much gone and I was just holding on, although I’m happy to say that I did ride the whole gnarly Buckwheat descent cleanly even in my shell of a human being state. When we finally got the last checkpoint at Saddle Gap on Bennett I knew it was just a little more descending and then a climb/descent to get home. After making it down Bennett gap, we made the turn at the stables to head up Clawhammer.

Gravel climb and rip roaring singletrack descent to get home, we can do this. About 1/3 of the way up there is a pipe that comes out of the side of the hill with spring water. Which was a godsend at the time, a nice cold bottle over the head, and then a full nice cold bottle for this last climb.

We made it to the finish line, with our decision to only get 4 checkpoints we were the first ones back, which was nice, however now we had 2 hours to wait to see how many teams beat us. Any team that got 5 checkpoints would get a 2 hour time bonus. 1 and 2 came in as expect with 5 and not terribly long after we got in. 3rd though I wasn’t sure of. They did end up coming in about 20 minutes before the 2 hours was up, so we ended up 4th. All and all it was a pretty good day, I rode well for about 2/3rds of it and have a good idea of where I went wrong (not enough food and a little too hard early on). Riding with Wes was fun, he’s an animal on the bike and there is a lot to learn from someone who has been racing at a high level for so long.

Riding a geared bike was different, a lot of people would say it’s easier but when you’re used to only having one gear it’s just very different. With gears you can pedal harder on flats and downhill, so areas that I would normally get some rest I can now pedal, which means you have to understand pacing a little better. At the end of the day I know it’s faster but there is also different training/learning to be done before it is faster. At the moment I think I’ll stick to my SS for now, but my interest has been piqued….