Brian Head 100

Name:	Brian Head 100
Description:	A 100 mile mountain bike race organized by Team Big Bead around Brian Head, Ut. The beauty of this race is that it's quite high, between 8000 and 11000 ft, and thus reasonably cool in the summer, and, it goes out and back, unlike many other endurace races that run back and forth in a relatively small area. An additional perk is that no matter what place one takes, if the ride time is under 11 hours for men and 12 hours for women, one gets a nice bike jersey. Under 9 hours one gets a plague, and, this year they were extra nice and gave me and another guy a medal for placing 4th and 5th in our category, for both being under 9 hours (we were the only two under 9 hours who did not place in top 3 in their category). What to say about the race itself? It rained hard the afternoon before the race, so, some sections in the forest were quite wet, especially in the morning. The race goes downhill as it goes south, and, everybody was flying down pretty fast for my normal standards, ignoring the mud, etc. I tried to follow the people I started with, catching up with them on the uphills, and loosing them on the downhills. Then at the Virgin Rim trail at the very south of the course, I saw max 10 tire track ahead of me and realized, that I may end up getting a decent position at the end. I just did not know if I'll be able to last till the end. I stopped at the aid station 3 for 5 min or so and ate as much as I could, then things went alright till about 35 miles from the finish I got cramps, which required several stops and slowing down a bit. I think this cost me about 15 minutes on total time. Apart from this, I did not have any major difficulties and only two minor ones, my water bottle cage got loose so I had to stop and tighten it up, and the front derailleur got some mud in it and would not shift to the smallest ring. This was not too big of a deal since I only had to get off and push twice or so. Overall, a good experience, while riding, I was asking myself if all this is worth the suffering, but, after the finish, I was glad I did it.
URL:	TopoFusion Home Page

Total Distance:	95.23 miles (153.27 km)
Total Trip Time:	8:49:56 (8:32:45 moving time)
Total Climbing:	9474 feet (2888 m) according to barometric GPS ca 8700 ft.
Total Descending:	9392 feet (2863 m)
Average Speed:	11.14 mph (17.93 kph)

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