The dream summer in Salida has continued its course, and with every day it seems more and more certain that this is where I’m supposed to be… this summer, anyway. Put another way, I’m really enjoying it here!
After a solid block of training and trail riding with Krista Park, my legs were feeling pretty toast.
Shawn Gillis and Paul Attalla
Divide riders started showing up in town, so I started “recovery rides” down to Absolute Bikes to meet some of them. Paul Attalla was first into Salida, having started from Mexico. He was incredibly well prepared and determined. I knew he was a lock for the win and a worthy recipient of the S->N record (that Paula and I have embarrassingly held for too long… ha!).
I followed Paul’s tire tracks up to the Fremont/Chaffee county line, at 10,000′, later that evening. The road gets so little traffic once you get a few miles out of Salida that his fresh Hutchinson Python’s (that he and Shawn are opening in the photo above) were plainly visible, wobbling all over the road.
With all the divide tracking, the excitement over the race brewing at the front, talking to Paul and seeing the fire in his eyes for the route and the challenge, and now riding part of the route and finding an incredible rhythm… well, let’s just say it was the closest I’ve come to wanting to retry the divide race since my 2005 attempt. It’s a total cliche, but when I got to the top of the pass I wanted to continue riding, I wanted to keep moving further along the earth, day by day. The singletrack bikepack races are still where my heart is, but there is one small thing that they lack and that the divide has. Covering so many miles in a day, repeatedly, does have a indescribable feel to it. Up and over so many mountains, passes and valleys that even a TopoFusion trained brain can’t remember or understand them all. And when you are on the road you really get to (have to?) look around, whereas singletrack is usually so demanding that you can’t look around as much.
In any case, I turned around at the pass, and soon found myself listing all the reasons NOT to race the divide. And there are many, but then there are always a million reasons not to do something. Maybe some day…
After destroying the climb to the county line, I kept the tempo up and blasted through the singletrack of Cottonwood Canyon. It’s a long and sinuous descent, and one I find rolls just a bit smoother when I’ve attacked the climb to get to it. Besides the ‘tempo’ goal of the ride, I was pushing the clock, trying to get back to the ‘S’ Mountain in time to catch the Fibark Hill Climb. Right as I came around to the town side of the mountain I could see a herd of runners leaving downtown, then streaming straight up the mountain!
Just above the “S” there’s a steep scramble section that was really entertaining to watch. I saw some painful falls and close calls as the leaders came flying down the mountain while others were still going up, with rocks sliding everywhere. That’s Shawn’s son Camden jumping down the rocks in the shot above. He was really fast.
There’s no “route” for the hill climb, so you generally go the fastest/steepest way up. It looked like fun… in a dangerous sort of way.
Salida swelled with river folks and festival goers (Fibark is all about the river events). I left town amidst the craziness, heading to “the Springs” to fetch Paula from the airport. Finally, she is in Colorado and not a minute too soon since the temps have stayed 100+ since she left.
We hit up Costco for $350 in groceries (!), then spent the afternoon wandering around Manitou Springs where we spent the summer a few years ago. It’s pretty much just as we remember it, which is a good thing. Classic nickel pinball machines, lots of tourists, always threatening rain, and tiny jammed streets but everyone is walking around and enjoying “the Rockies.” That was a good summer.
Pikes Peak was calling me, loudly, and appeared to be snow free. It’s on the docket for this summer, for sure. Perhaps the most memorable ride I’ve ever done in Colorado…
We eventually made it to Salida with just enough time to go to sleep before our races the next morning. In case anyone is wondering, eating a “lunch” consisting of nothing but Costco samples (mmmm…bacon) is not recommended for a pre-race meal. Both our stomachs were a bit of a mess come race time.
Our races (both part of the Fibark Festival) were on the same course, and Paula’s trail 10k was first, so I warmed up on the course and watched Paula come by in second place with less than a mile to go.
Knowing the course, I thought the race was over, until I saw the look on her face and the speed at which she was running downhill! I hopped on my bike and even though it continued descending, by the time I caught up to Paula and the other girl (Katie Davis), Paula had passed her and grown a big gap. Awesome.
While waiting for the MTB race to start, Paula came over and showed me the polarized glasses she won, then offered them to me for good luck. They had about a hundred less scratches than my current glasses, so I took them, and we joked that maybe I could win a pair if I liked them.
I knew my legs were going to ‘lack luster’ and that some fast locals were likely to show up, so I’d have my hands full. Someone on a Don Mcclung bike attacked ferociously right off the start, half laughing as he got a big gap and got the party starting like it should — FAST.
I had warmed up thoroughly, so I pinned it on Spiral Drive, gaining a 1 minute lead that held for the entire race — all 1:40 of it. That was plenty long for me, since every climb longer than 30 seconds sent me into the hurt locker. I was really glad for the excellent trail design and flow of the S Mtn trails that I’ve grown to love over the past month. You can dance your way along the trails and maintain the relative illusion of strength, even when you don’t have it. I caught glimpses of both Kevin Thomas (Vapor Trail Champ) and Luke Jay (2nd place in the Hill Climb scramble I watched a couple days before) at certain places and felt certain they were going to catch me. And once they did, I didn’t feel like I had the legs to fight with them. I felt like dropping out in the middle of the second climb up Frontside Trail. Yep, riding in first place and feeling like dropping out. It was a good week of training!
photo by Paula Morrison
Paula was out watching and cheering, except that when we got mixed in with the Cat 2 riders she thought I had been passed by 10-12 people and asked, “what happened?” in a disappointed tone as I rode by. “What do you mean, what happened? I’m leading the race!”
ice bath in the river after the race
Great trails, great people, well organized, low key — I loved the race and was even more stoked to win the same pair of glasses that Paula had given me (though she made me keep the ones I raced in and she got the ‘new’ ones – ha!).
The local paper wrote a nice little article on the race, with a photo of me, too. Great weekend!
Recovery rides in the following days were spent tracking down a few divide racers in Salida. It was great to catch up with my boys, Jefe Branham and Kurt Refsnider, and get a glimpse into their mindset so deep into the race. Both have stayed at my place in Tucson before and successfully put the screws to the AZT race. They finished 1st and 2nd, with neither rider able to get too far away from the other. It was epic.
That’s Kurt checking out trackleaders.com/tourdivide on Mike Dion’s phone (sorry, not BlueDot, Dave).
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