Steele Creek – our first fly-to race. We ditched the van at a Trek dealer three weeks ago and met up with it last night when we flew back to Charlotte. We felt a little bit like rock stars but not quite since we are paying for every bit of travel ourselves.
It was warm and green when arrived at dusk last night. Spring is here and it felt great. I drove with my window down in the van just to experience the warm wind and smell of spring again. Can’t get enough of that since it has been so long in coming where we live in Wisconsin.
The sky was clear and starry at 10:30 when we got the camper set up. We didn’t find course front access but darn near. Close enough, really. I got up to pee in the middle of the night and it was still warm but the stars were gone. We woke at 6 to light rain and cold temps. That’s what the day was like – 55 and sprinkles. So much for spring.
Joe had an all-day clutch issue that was finally solved when Shane at FMF Suzuki found an abnormally worn part. With that replaced Joe’s bike worked like new and Joe breathed a sigh of relief. It’s a long way for a guy to come and not race, especially when all your gear is here and your head is ready to ride. A simple, unsolvable problem could be a real bummer. Thanks Shane!
I spent the day farting around the course, talking to Barney at Pirelli (he introduced me to a mud tire that I’ll ride this weekend) and doing other odds and ends. I think if I were to arrive at a race like this with a totally prepped bike I could get here on Saturday afternoon and have enough time to register, get to tech and still see some of the course. That might be the plan in the future. Since this is only the third time we have been to a race like this we are still learning.
Barney the Pirelli Tech
The big news was, and I’m certain that Joe went off over on his blog, was the hill we saw during our abbreviated course reconnaissance. I sat in awe while the quads raced and witnessed several crashes that resulted in injured riders and broken machines. I also saw riders struggle bigtime with the steep, rooted, rocky, winding trail that had not a single opt-out line. The hill is the 100 yards from bottom to top and goes directly up the fall line of the hill. I have no idea how we are going to get up that thing. Guaranteed the holes, roots and rocks are only going to get worse by the time we race and that particular hill is already intimidating. We might lose sleep tonight – it’s that bad. Worse yet is that everything we can see from our pit is a mound, ridge or mountain. The hill we saw is not the only hill on this course. I’m concerned.
But my knee is good, my bike is ready and if it rains I’m okay in the mud. Bring it on.
