Big Bear Shoot Out #3: A cat 2, mens 25-29 race report , in the key of awesome

Thanks to Mark Luke, I was able to make it to big bear for some good old fashion mtn bike racing. The course is very favored for climbers, especially roadies with no skillz. It starts with a long climb up fire road, followed by some more rolling fire road, followed by a wee bit of wet muddy singletrack, followed by a sandy fireroad descent, followed by another long steep climb (still fire road), followed by a technical single track descent, followed by, yeuo you guessed it, more fire road, then a technical single track to the finish.

The plan was go out hard, get a big gap, and then hope no one closed it on the downhills ( where I probably ride a fast as your grandma). The plan started out good enough for the fist two minutes, untill a group of about 6 shot by me. My legs were burning and I thought, well there goes my plan. I settled into a rhythm, and before long I reeled then all in as they started going backwards. Along the ridge and the first big decent, most of that group past me and the next 30 minutes weren't pretty as rider after rider came up on me and past me several in my age split. I knew there there was a decent sized climb still remaining so I tried to keep the damage under control untill the last climb. Finally it came and I gave it everything I had. I brought back most of the riders and even got a nice gap. I held that untill the last decent where a small group past me, but as it turned out, none from my age group.
I finished 1st in the cat 2, mens 25 - 29.

Platinum had a great showing with a handfull of podiums. It is nice to be part of such an awesome team. The guys at team big bear do a great job and the race was a blast, I am looking forward to more races in the dirt! A special thanks to Roxanne Moore for hiking all over that course to take pictures of the team!

Be sure to check in at http://platinumcycling.com/ for the latest photos and to see how the team has been doing this year.