U.S. Cup Qualifier Race in French Lick

French Lick is a huge resort in the middle of nowhere, southern Indiana style. Lindsay and me planed to make it a weekend and enjoy a well deserved getaway. The night before we left while we were checking on our reservations, we asked if they were cool if we brought Chief and to our surprise they said sure, bring him down!

French Lick resort came up with a grand idea to build singletrack out their back door as a way to draw more visitors. They accomplished this with gusto and had my all time favorite trail designer/guru carve out sizable and pristine single track that is not commonly seen in Indiana nor in any of our neighboring states. Alex laid this singletrack down with his signature style that encompasses every component you want pedal your low pressurized steed through beautiful thick woods. From his perfectly angled berms, using natural rock features as obstacles/course, weaving you through trees yet still being gaze ahead to plot your next line, rolling under/next to natural caves, hitting hard turns through all seeper waterfalls, mossy rocks you see in epic mountain bike photos, chicanes carving through trailer home sized boulders, climbs that require granny’s granny gear and yet making the flow seem natural from revolution #1. Did I mention his ability to make you feel like you are Steve Peat shredding the downhills?

I moved up to a higher category which is Cat-2 OPEN for this race and reserved to those on the cusp of earning a Cat-1 and the fastest of the fastest in this category. I pulled up the starting line with familiar faces and unfamiliar ones all racing for their own goals and perhaps an invitation to the U.S. Cup in Bonillo, CA. The gun sounded and we took off through a golf course marked with tape through some pine trees over the road and up to our first test, climbing the singletrack for several miles. I was 6th place entering the forest behind those who have been dominating cat-2 open this year. We were ripping up the first climb at a steady pace and entered the most technical section about 15 minutes in dropping into a beautiful thin dirt ribbon hugging the side of a steep Indiana mountain side. Because the night before it rained something fierce, the gravity and oil like slickness was pulling us to the left off the super slippery thin little dirt strip. After about 20 minutes I felt comfortable with the pace and wanted to test myself and made my first attack which I took the high side through the forest and awkwardly landed back on the trail. For the next 10 minutes I knew I could do it again several more times with the next 3 riders in front of me. This course does not give you much room to pass so each one has to be done precisely at the right time so you don’t wreck yourself of the wreck racer being passed. I moved into the 3rd slot after attacking up a peanut buttery like consistency while climbing and needed recover for a few moments. Instead I decided to push on chasing the #2 racer and drove myself well into the don’t go there zone. Here is where it gets fuzzy, I attacked a few more racers and could not be sure what category they were racing to I pressed on while finding my rhythm. This is where it gets fun, me vs. the trail and I was feeling good, real good. After 58 minutes of racing I rounded my first lap where all the fans were standing and shooting photos while yelling encouragement as I blazed by them.

I saw my fiancée and Chief right as I carved the turn shooting me back up the climb we began on. On the way up more photographers and fans were yelling and I was smiling ear to ear. About 30 minutes goes by and I began see my competitors gaiing on me and knew I had to keep ripping along as fast as my legs would go without blowing up because there was still a lot of singletrack between me and the finish line. With about 15 more minutes of singletrak to slay, my friend Ryan Preske who entered the woods in the 7th slot had caught me. What a race he had ridden to have attacked all the same riders and closed what I had thought was a couple minute gap. We knew right at the point where the downhill section began this would likely be a mano y mano sprint finish. We ripped down the last muddy shoot out on to the road and onto the golf course section that would lead us to the finish line and one of us to victory. I hit the course turf first and Ryan directly on my wheel. I shifted into my sprinting gear preparing to kick like branded bull as so did Ryan. About 100 yards to the finish line Ryan had had more left in his tank and outsprinted me to the line and through his hands high in the air. I crossed right after him, damn near collapsed off my bike from exhaustion and pain that comes with racing for almost 2 hours and there we have it. My friend gets 1st and me 2nd, could not got any better unless.. well of course.  Ryan earned that win as I earned my 2nd place with full satisfaction of every ounce of effort vaporized in one heck of a race. We both moved up to cat-2 open at this race and have a feeling this won’t be the last race we battle it out or where we are competing for a top spot.

I love racing bikes!