Apparently they race bikes there. Here's his report.
There's a local series out here called "Racers and Chasers" which is
really well run and chill and fun. There are a couple fast guys but
the focus is really on making sure everyone enjoys themselves. They
put on a 50 miler with probably 95% of it on dirt like a half hour
north of downtown. I wanted to see all these trails and Steve and Mike
were signed up and as well as another kid out here that I met so I
figured even though I hadn't been riding much it could still be fun. I
didn't have a car yet and something was going on with Steve's ride
situation there so he picked my bike up the night before and I was
going to ride the motorcycle up. I got super lost twice and showed up
5 or 10 minutes after the race left, which was running a half hour
late anyway. I stripped out of full moto leathers and directly into
spandex, making a great transition from badass (motor) bike racer to
scrawny (pedal) bike racer, stuffing pancakes in my mouth the whole
time. Upon pulling my front wheel out of the car we realized that it
was flat. I pulled it apart while Steve readied a tube and soon we
were on our way. The riding was going well and we were catching people
pretty quick. There was an out and back section that I wasn't aware of
cause I never looked at a course map so rounding a blind corner I was
almost smoked by the 7 leaders all riding in a pack. Shortly after,
riding on a bike path a roadie passed me, had a momentary lapse of
judgement, and tried to take a pavement to dirt 90 degree corner
faster than I would have on a mountain bike. He landed in a pile 3
feet in front of me. Steve and I couldn't figure out what the
dominate emotion should be, shock or humor, but we tried to keep both
off our face as we helped this guy detangle himself from his bike. We
caught Morton and rode with him for a bit but he was on his way to
cracking harder than any of us, including himself, could have
imagined. I eventually pulled away from Steve which blew my mind since
I haven't ridden 50 miles at once since leaving CO. In the last 4
miles of the race the course went straight up and straight back down
like 1800 ft of elevation on a fire road. No breeze and no shade. I
still have my gear setup for when I was in shape - no granny and a
road cassette. I ended up pushing and Steve caught back up when I just
sat down under a scrub bush and ate an apple. Steve finished ahead of
me and Morton, well, he had a rough enough day that he didn't even
come out to Stone Brewing after. So the point is, Waltworks has great
representation out here. Or something.
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