Subject: MTB Race Report: Iceman Cometh Challenge Made the trek to Michigan this weekend to do my first mountain bike race in years. Had an absolute blast! The short writeup: Iceman Cometh mtb race in Traverse City, MI. Awesome! Course was about 28 miles, I finished in 2:13 and change. Good enough for 27th out of 143 finishers in the men's sport 34-36 category. Huge event that was really well run. Checked in Friday night after a looooong drive, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed to the cabin we had rented. Saturday morning we were able to park about 1.5 miles from the start which was fine for riding in as a bit of a warrm up. I seeded myself at the front row at the start, figuring it would be easier to get passed than to pass people, and not knowing how hard the race would go out. Turns out, I was second wheel for for the mile or so that we were on pavement before hitting the trails. Just before the first trail section about five guys blasted around the front to pick up the pace. Course was mostly nice fast double track with quite a few sand pits to get through and some fun single track sections. Passing had to be done on the double track as the single track was all pretty tight in the trees. Some good climbs and rippin' fast descents in there too. The finish festival was awesome. They had set up the course to wrap around an area where the beer was being sold. Finish, grab food, then go to the beer area to watch the other finishers. With so many racers the wave start took well over two hours. After a couple hours break, the pros started last. We stuck around and enjoyed some beers and cheered in the pros too. Super fun! Looking forward to more mtb racing next year! Pics in the post here: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?memberid=20847&year=2009&month=11&day=9
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