Lessons are only helpful if you learn from them

So a couple days ago I told you about my horrible experience at The Miles of Discomfort. I pretty much made a point of not riding in horrible mud again. It sucks, it's horrible and it's bad for your bike. Supposedly, Bluff Creak Ranch only got 1 inch of rain Thursday. It also, apparently, drains well. I disagree on both accounts.

I decided to race on a team with a few friends in the 12 hour coed category. We had 4 people on our team: myself, Darryl Rosenfeld, Paul Sedillo and Fayza Elmostehi. Darryl started the race for us and rode a 35 minute lap. Paul and Fayza rode their laps and then I was up. My lap started how it usually does at Warda. After the loop around the pond, you have a false flat from Hell. It is made worse my the moisture in the ground. The first bit of trail is relatively dry and packed but eventually I reach the first of the many bogs in the trail. The mud was axle deep but soupy so as long as you kept the power down you were fine. Repeat this for about 20 minutes and then it's time for Gas Pass which was packed and worn. Great down hill and lots o'fun. The rest of the trail was pretty straight foward until the roller coaster, which was a 1/4 mile long mud pit. I made through my first lap in 38 minutes and 37 seconds.

As the day, wore on fewer and fewer riders were on the course. Some were dropping out because of the conditions or mechanical issues. After 3 laps, most of my team said they done and I headed out with my lights on the bike. I did one complete lap in the light and started on my fourth lap. I made it through half the lap then needed my light. The mud and muck that was horrible during the day was even worse at night. I finished my lap and figured my team was done but Darryl was there ready to go back out. He pulled off a fast night lap to finish the race for us.

We ended the race with 14 laps and in 5th place.

Erique Williams (Team BWF/Casey Stoddard U23 Development Team) was the surprise member of the Six hour solo male category. He came out of nowhere and completed 8 muddy laps on a brand new crankset. Racing on new equipment is always a bad idea but some times you can still luck out.


My bike is clean now. Unfortunately, my rear brake pads did not survive.