Growler

The brother and I headed down to Gunnison last weekend for the Growler. Both of us had raced there last year so we knew the course but we headed out for some easy pre-riding.

Rain throughout the week left the trails crazy fast and the traction was through the roof.

We spun a bit of the course before being swallowed up by a big rain storm. We got back to the car soaked to the bone and with our clean and race ready bikes covered in mud.

Due to rain forecasted overnight, Carney Brothers Inc. did something we never do.....splurged for a cheap hotel room to clean bikes and dry kits.

The race itself was roughly a B+ day. I just plugged along never feeling like I was going 100%. With about 20 min left I rolled my front tire off the rim and lost some time trying to re-seat the bead and then ultimately putting in a tube and pumping it up with the worlds smallest pump. I rolled across the line in 6:17 something according to the results. After looking at the results and factoring in some time lost due to rolling my tire I don't think I was riding as slowly as I thought I was. I've made HUGE fitness gains this year thanks to Jason and I think I wasn't just all there mentally this time around. On the other hand, Stephen killed it after only spending a week at altitude and is riding like a demon right now!

After plenty of post race celebrating with friends we headed over towards Salida and crashed for the night in a pulloff. Monday morning we hit up Bongo Billy's for some B-fast and Absolute for some trail beta.....up to the Rainbow trail it was for some easy flowing through the pines.

We got back home Monday night tired, hungry, with no more clean kits, and mud on everything else....good weekend.