2nd annual Ryan Gaul Open race report

started off a bit ominous. the last hour of work, Cole and I were just looking out the office up towards Baldy Mt. It was either cloaked in black clouds or getting struck by lightning. Not good. By the time the whole crew showed up, we had about 16 guys who were ready to race the RGO. Driving up through town and onto Baldy Road, the rain was heavy. Just before Iowa Mill, there was accumulating snow on the ground. after leaving treeline and headed up the switchbacks, the temp gauge in Ryan's Tundra was showing 35 degrees. Another 500' or so to the ridge and the weather stations, and the snow was about 2" deep. We waited for the others and soon began our epic journey. It was not at all a great place to wait around, as there was a mixture of snow and thunder, with the stray lightning bolt several miles off to our northeast (towards Park Co. and Clear Creek Co.). Soon our driver tossed the trucker hat into the air and we were on our way. I slipped a pedal asap, but soon was watching the guys ride 2-3" of new snow at about 20+mph...without flinching. The snow actually provided nice traction in and of itself. However, when you throw in 12" deep v-shaped ruts, the off camber sections were next to impossible to ride straight. It seemed to me like we were sliding from one side to the other, trying not to go off the road or lay it down. After all, the new snow was hiding some gnarly rocks, which was in a way good, b/c I didn't think too much about the potential. Down on the lower dirt section of Baldy Rd, Dan, Mark and I were just holding on to our bars as best possible. On the paved section of Baldy, I passed Ray just before hopping on Juniata. Once on the Juniata trail, I pinned it for about 1/4mi, passed Greg and caught Kevin who was in the lead. We descended down to the bridge together for the next planned stop, the mandatory 12oz beer chug, as judged by Jeremy on site. After hitting the bridge with a high heart rate, chugging that beer was pretty disgusting. Nonetheless it went down and soon I was chasing Soller down through B Line, Moonstone and Carter Park. We crossed Main and exchanged the lead a couple times by the Blue River, but ultimately his heavier bike took its toll. I passed him one last time behind Kenosha, cruised by the Riverwalk, past Jalapenos, RML, US Bank, the covered bridge stairs, and down the bike path and on to the back of GA. Victory! I had my money on Kevin or Greg. Not a real xc or 'cross race, but a win still felt good. Best of all, the sweet medal I have (pic coming) and prize money were quite good for a grassroots event. 6.3mi in just over 20min. it was a blast. bummer the old-school DH guys like Dennis, Troy & CNBall couldn't make it out.

Pics later. Gotta get Helen's car ready for our drive over to Snowmass tomorrow night. One day of work there, then on to Moab for Helen's Alpine to Slickrock 50 mile race. ouch. Alina and I will have it much easier, except for our 3am wake-up on Saturday morning to get Helen out to the shuttles leaving for the start line, which is way up in the LaSals.