Loco Local

Posted by on Aug 5, 2007 in Uncategorized | No Comments

The Wasatch Classic…ouch is all I can say.

Three of us set out from the start of the ride at 4 AM, myself, Derrick Batley, and Jeff Kerkove. We made it all of 36 miles. We climbed 9k feet. We rode for nearly 10 hours. You read that right. 36 miles in 9+ hours.

We covered some wonderful country, and laid tread to some of Utah’s finest singletrack. But the relentless nature of the climbing kept our pace slow, and eventually it just wore us out. Well, I was wiped. Jeff and Derrick looked fresh all day! As the afternoon wore on we decided it would be best to pull the plug on the ride. None of us were prepared for a 24+ hour march, and doing the whole route was going to require that kind of time. So we turned off the route at Forest Lake and made our descent (retreat?) back to civilization.

I found myself feeling quite surprised at the colossal effort and amount of time the course took. I knew it was going to be difficult, I knew it was going to be slow at times, but I was really slapped around by my own backyard. It’s as if the mountains themselves knew what we were up to, and laughed at the audacity we possessed in trying to cover 140 miles in the course of one day.

By the time I was home and cleaned up, I was already looking over my maps, scheming, planning and putting into thought next years route. I got to connect some dots yesterday that previously only existed on maps. I also got to see many new possibilities out there. And we only covered 36 miles!

My camera was not working to well, I only got one photo. Luckily Jeff took dozens, and they describe the day quite well.

If there is one thing love about mountain biking, is that it continually reminds me of how small I am. Yesterday the mountains put us in our place, and reminded us who is in charge. Of course, we will be back out there, testing our legs against the ultimate opponent, that of gravity!

Look close, Jeff is in that picture!

4 Comments

  1. Craig
    August 6, 2007

    Saw the photos & write up over on Jeff’s page. Man, tough day at the office! Still, cool to be out riding all day in the beautiful country.
    Cheers,
    C.

  2. Cellarrat
    August 6, 2007

    Can’t seem to come up with more then woha!

  3. Dave Harris
    August 6, 2007

    Looking at the route profile, I’d expect the first 20 miles or so to be very slow. Doesn’t it climb about 5,000′ in that part?

    Jeff’s pics are awesome, it really made me want to be there. Next year amigo.

    Funny story here: LW was planning on coming up for your ride and I told her it would be suicide for 24 worlds – it was gonna take over 20 hours. That is one scary profile you cooked up…

    Big props for spreading the enthusiasm for these things Adam!

  4. Matt
    August 7, 2007

    I think you are onto something here…tough singletrack climbing routes. So what if the mileage isn’t some round 3 digit number. This sounds like a winner already!

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