Took me a while to digest all the mud and write down the race report. This event has been epic. I raced with Team Red Pill in the 5 men master category, with JL, Tick, Richard and Jeff. I arrived in Cool only at 8PM  on Friday and it was pouring with the wind blowing.The attempt to pitch the tent got me (and the tent) completely soaked – plan B sleep in the car.

Team Red Pill before the race

Sat morning it was still cloudy and sprinkling but didn’t look that bad. Pre rode half of the course in the morning and although muddy, it looked feasible.

Tick went first for the start at 12 noon, followed by Jeff, myself, Richard and JL.

My first lap wasn’t too bad, around 1:16, a lot slower than last year, but still decent. Course was muddy and having no fender I ended up stopping a lot to clean my glasses. Got a break, had some good food and tried to relax.

Laps got longer and longer and so my second lap started in the dark, around 10PM. That was the worst part. It wasn’t raining much but the trail was really sloppy. I had to walk many section where I was completely spinning my wheels in the mud.

The whole thing was miserable, crashed once, which is not nice at night and ended up with 1:38 lap. The worst part after a lap was going to the wash station and get hosed down to remove the mud and then try to get dry and clean in the car.

Slept couple hours and when I woke up at 4.30AM I had no intention to get back on the course. I think many teams suspended their laps during the night: not us.

when I came to the pit area Tick had just come in and Jeff was out doing his lap. I had no choice but to get ready and go out. Richard peek out of his tent to make sure I was up. Luckily Jeff took his time for the lap and by the time he was back it there was enough light. I think it was around 6.30.

Went out for my 3rd and last lap. It was pouring again but the traction wasn’t as bad as the night before. Most of the trals at that point had turned into water streams and amazingly staying in the water stram improved traction vs. riding in the slop.

By the time I got back they organizer announced that the race was going to end at 10AM, cutting short by two hours. That gave time for one more lap. Richard went out with about two hours to complete his lap.

End of first lap for me - where is the shower?

Took a while to get results, but we got second place in our category (which was awarded on the spot, very uncerimonously in the rain) with a total of 14 laps.

Knowing that Tinker Juarez completed the same number of laps alone made me feel very humble. Even so I was pretty stoked of completing the race in such challenging conditions.

the aftermath on my bike was pretty bad. There was tons of mud inside the frame, one bottom bracket bearing and 4 suspension bearings were frozen and required a couple days of work to put them back in operation. Brake pads, front and rear gone, down to the metal.

Lessons learned for future stormy races:

• Always bring fenders to a rainy race
• Proper rain gear to stay dry.
• Mud tires are great and make a lot of difference.
• Warm food and wool socks are the real stuff.
• Hard tail single speed or 1×9 is the way to go in these conditions.

Having said that this was an epic race and I had a lot of fun. Mud can be fun if you have the right gear to play. Best placement of the season and for a good cause: doesn’t get better than this.

Team Red Pill Podium