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Saturday I took part in the Laramie Enduro a 111K Mountain bike race all at above 7,500′ elevation. I last participated in this event 10 years ago and remember it being one of my favorite mtb rides. I have wanted to do it again for some time, but it has become so popular that to get in you need to sign up the day registration opens in January. This year I remembered that and did so.

I drove up by myself in the pouring rain Friday night which fortunately subsided as I arrived at the campground/start-finish line. I then had a great sleep in the back of my pickup truck at 8,600′ right next to my Merlin mtb - which, as a Titanium Moots-YBB-style soft-tail with V-brakes & 9-speeds is clearly now a dinosaur among race bikes.

<rant>
I’m tired of this “absolutely no race morning packet pick-up” bullsh*t. I had to leave work early and drag my ass up to Laramie, WY before 8pm just so I could do 75 seconds worth of paperwork. There is no good reason I couldn’t have spent the night with my family then gotten up at 4am and on the start line for a 7am start. It is now enough to cause me to think twice about registering for events at all. Pump the local economy some other way. I didn’t spend a dime of money in Wyoming on principal after that.
</rant>

Just as I did at the Growler in May, I intentionally lined up at the back of my class at the start. By doing this I feel no pressure to go faster than I want on the technical single-track which could lead to a crash and lots of pain, which I don’t need. If I can pass others, great, if not, oh well. My goal at these “C” priority events isn’t to place well, but to have a good time, ride a challenging course and get in a great workout. Seems like a prudent idea considering I am a bit out of practice having only had 3 mtb rides in the last 2 years.

By the end of the third hour I had passed enough riders to be placed in the top 30 or so. I was cruising through 8″ wide track through tall grass in a prairie and came around a bend to see a fallen tree perpendicular across the trail. Usually such obstacles are well marked with orange tape and some warning. Not this one. After an earnest, yet failed, attempt to bunny hop it, I quickly was flying through the air, sans bike. Fortunately I landed in the soft meadow grass and was back aboard within seconds, unhurt. However, a few cranks later I reached for my brakes and couldn’t find them. Instinctively I repositioned the lever (I leave them loose so when I crash, which is often, they turn down rather than break). Still weren’t there, then I looked down to see I had snapped my front lever. 70% of my braking power: gone, and I still had a looong way to go. 10 minutes later 5 of us got lost and added another 1.5 miles trying to re-find the trail. I was quite pissed at this point.

The rest of the day was an exercise in how to ride gnarly, rocky & rooty singletrack at a speed that I wouldn’t kill myself on. The last hour I did a lot of walking.

Training Peaks visual graph of my day

After spending 2 of the last 3 weekends at altitude on 6+ hours rides, I am really looking forward to fresh legs and a 7,000 loss in elevation: IMC minus 28 days…