12/1 - Holidaze Marathon MTB Race, Camp Eagle, TX

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Bear's Winter Fling, in case you didn't get the memo, is under way.

First stop has been Camp Eagle, to "race" in the Holidays Marathon, and as a more-westerly launch point.

Much to my chagrin, and against all the anti-rain dances I did last week, it was misting and damp when I got out here.

Got in a bit later than desired, mostly because I refused to come down 8 miles of dirt and park with like 1/8 a tank of gas remaining.

Go ahead, call me silly.

Once I got setup, I had like 2:30 before dark, but I went out to ride anyway. I've never ridden here before, after all.

The trail was very slick on the limestone (and there's a lot), once my tires had a sheen of wet dirt on them.

But it was still a fun trail.

Now that I've been here I can add my voice to say that Camp Eagle is a pretty nice place to hang out. Some time when the weather is more amenable (e.g. dry) I'd love to be part of a nice group weekend down here, for some biking and general silliness.

This morning the weather was about the same, and everybody racing was not necessarily happy about it. I know at least one person that had driven down from Dallas that bailed and left on first-light instead of racing wet. The first lap was pretty brutal, between the wet limestone plate going up Armadillo trail, and the intermittent dirt-vs-limestone on the Texas trail (which is pretty much all off-camber) it was quite a workout just "living with" the line your bike picked. I really wished, a lot of times, that I was riding with my normal tires as they would find a lot more traction. The tradeoff I went with was to run my skinnies (e.g. 2.4" Kenda Cortez) and while they were not quite as absolutely sticky, they worked out fine. I even had a high speed of 31 mph coming down off the windmill hill crest!

Data Nerd Info: Race loop was 14.4 miles long, featuring 1784 feet of climbing (and downhill!) per lap.

You can get a copy of the tracklog over here (I suggest right-click save)

Oh yeah, and some pix some people do *not* want to see ... post-race of the Q ...

Some people's bikes were completely trashed out.

How, I do not know.

Tommorrow, on the road for a really REALLY long drive to Durango to hook up with TrailSurfer for a couple days.

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