Saturday was the Michaux Mash, an early season “opener” designed with everything a cross-country racer could ask for: endless climbing, rivers of rocks, ripping descents and miles of sweet, technical singletrack. The race is a four-hour enduro, with the goal being to crank out as many nine-mile laps as you can before the 1 p.m. cutoff. It’s not a priority-A race, but I knew there would be some strong racers out there tuning up for the NUE and other endurance series. I wanted to do well. I’ve been training my arse off since Santos, and I wanted to see some payoff.
Mashed Michaux!
Because of the terrain, racing Michaux is always hard. Rocky, technical, unforgiving. Saturday was no different, except it was also cold. After a week of unseasonable warmth, including a day that saw temps kiss 90, Saturday morning was a February-like 40-something degrees. We all warmed up, but no one was warm. The race director said, “Go!” and a hundred shivering bike racers threw it into high gear and started motoring up the fire road. The Clif Notes version: I found myself with the lead group of seven to 10 riders up the first big climb. I thought there was some lightning-fast girl ahead of me, but it was actually a guy. I raced nearly 40 very hard mountain bike miles—including four trips up the giant climb—thinking I was chasing the bionic woman and gunning for second place, when I’d actually won. Very happy surprise!
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