Cactus Cup Recap

Stage 1: Uphill TT A short and violent effort up a super steep climb. The course was allegedly a mile long, but I think it was about 3/4 of a mile. The upper section was super loose and traction was hard to find. I pre-rode several times and watched others do so as well in an attempt to find a good line. I came to the conclusion there was no good line. I cleaned it 4 or 5 times and felt like I had it reasonably dialed. Apparently not dialed enough, because during the race I lost traction at a tricky little rock section, had to unclip, and run 50 yards to where the hill eased a bit and I could remount. My slow time made be a bit cranky.

Spectators had a good view of the Strip from the course. Competitors couldn't enjoy the view because they were staring just ahead of their front tires looking desperately for some areas of traction.


World Champs don't have a problem with loose climbs.


Wannabe Pros, on the other hand, had to run their bike.


My time was about the same as this guy who was spectating on the side of the course.


Stage 2: Super D
Saturday morning's stage brought an 11 mile somewhat downhill course through the desert from the Cottonwood trailhead to the old mining town of Blue Diamond with some short but stiff climbs thrown in for good measure. I went cross eyed for about 39 minutes or so. The course had some super swoopy turn sections that were fun if you got the cornering drift right and downright scary if you didn't and drifted off trail towards a cactus.

Semipro's lined up with the pros. You know you're skinny when you make Tinker look thick.


Rippin' in the desert.


Stage 3: Fatboy Criterium under the lights
A road crit with MTBs running slicks on a 3/8th of a mile loop and at night. Crazy fun! Again, semipros were run with the pros. Four current and former MTB Olympians were in the race. It was rad to rocket through the first corner on Sauser's wheel. My goal was to last as long as I could before getting pulled and not knock anybody over. Turns out I was pretty good at railing the 180 degree corners and I nearly went the distance, but got pulled on the penultimate lap.

A quick video of corner #1. I'm in there somewhere.


Stage 4: XC
30 miles of mostly desert 1track. I started strong and was holding the lead for the first 4 or 5 miles. I proceeded to overshoot a corner, which caused me to drop my chain and it wrapped around itself making for a time consuming repair. This left me in no-man's land off the lead pack of semipro riders and that is where I would spend most of the day. The heat cranked up and the trails got even more technical as fatigue set in. One one downhill section I drifted off the trail in a corner and pegged a Joshua Tree at speed. Ouch! On another stretch, I clipped a cactus with my right hand. Double Ouch! No serious injuries, but enough to rattle the confidence a bit, which caused me to slow it down some because there was nobody close to catching me from behind and it was clear I wasn't going to get back to the leaders.

I ended up 3rd Overall in the Semipro Stage Race.


A nice engraved cowbell (and some good prize $$$ too!)


Another fun and entertaining MTB race season comes to an end. I'm already anxious to see how next year's schedule will shape up.

Thanks for reading,
Blue Star