Offroad - [awf-rohd, of-]

This past weekend we used the time being "home" to participate in the local "Faster'n Hell" mountain bike race here at the "Wee-Chi-Tah Trail". First off, I do some mountain bike riding in the off-season (Oct-Feb) once a week but haven't done so since last December. As a roadie I did a MTB race either. So it was going to be fun, especially after 3.5 hours the day before in the saddle and the Hash Run...
Both Sheri and me rode some borrowed Giant Warp DS3 bikes which are right at 33lbs a piece...That's twice my road bike!!! Some people say to stay away from that CCM (Cheap China Metal) but hey, they were for free and I couldn't take the road bike ;-) After all, the legs are the important part in bike racing...
I decided to do the sport category, along with Brian, Francis, Adam (single-speed category), and Sheri, who was the lonely girl out there that day. After a slow start and clip-in issues I couldn't believe how FAST people would go off in a 90min race. My HR was locked at 190 for the first 5minutes and I slowly managed to pass some people. I rolled up to Brian and we raced for probably an hour "together" (if you can say on a single-trail). It got too technically for me though and I had to let skinny Brian go and race my own race. I was in third. Francis crashed out prior to that. Towards the end I could use more my road skills and use the flats to catch up on Brian just before the finish to make it a 2-3 for the "roadies", while a guy from Wisconsin (a 'real' biker) took the win.

Photos hijacked from www.elementimage.com