Watching Our First Mountain Bike Race

A few weekends back we got the chance to watch our friend Dan compete in a mountain bike race. In case you are wondering this is not the same Dan that is doing the vegan project on my blog. (I have two friends named Dan!) We were super excited to go support him since he is the reason we started cycling in the first place. Dan has been a huge inspiration for me. He has battled some serious health problems over the last few years and has still been able to stay in great shape. He decided he wasn't going to let his health issues hold him back from his love of biking. Last year he climbed the summit at the Rocky Mountain National Park. (A 9,000 feet climb to the top.) I hope to follow in his footsteps someday.



The race was held at Curt Gowdy State Park here in Wyoming. It was my first visit and I was impressed with how beautiful the park is. I was more fascinated with the amount of bikes I was surrounded by. I may not be a mountain biker but it was still really cool to be around other people who love to ride a bike the way I do. Even though mountain bikers like to tease road bikers about riding on the road verses the dirt and mountains. I'm not ready for riding in the rocks. It's scares the hell out of me honestly. I can get hurt on my road bike but I feel the chances are increased on a mountain bike.


It was nice being able to bring our dogs with us...
There were three bike races held that day. Dan's race was the last one, the intermediate course. It was a total of 15 miles through narrow dirt trails, rocks, steep hills and mountains. The intermediate race was also opened to women. They just started ten minutes ahead of the men and were timed separately. The first hill that all the racers had to climb up was so steep and what seemed to be never ending. Here is a photo Cody took of some of the girls climbing...


We got this great video of Dan starting the race and climbing the hill. There is no way in hell I could climb that thing!!!

Dan waving as he goes by...

After Dan went by us, we hiked out in the woods to find a cool place to catch some photos. Since Dan had practiced the trail many times he told about a great place to sit and wait for him to ride by during his second lap. I had fun climbing some rocks and snapping some photos.




Yes, that is a cowbell sitting on a rock. Notice it has "rule #5" written on it. When Dan first introduced us to cycling he also informed us of the rules of cycling. The rules are mostly just supposed to be humorous. A lot of cyclists follow them by the book though. I tend to be the rebellious type of person and plan to wear my heart shaped sunglasses while cycling instead of buying overpriced cycling glasses. Which is already breaking rule #1 which is, follow all the rules. By the way, rule #5 is Harden The F*ck Up. I remember this every time I climb a hill on my bike. For a complete list of the rules go HERE.


We waited for about an hour for Dan to reach the spot where we hoped to get some photos of him riding. We really had to pay attention because riders came by quickly. When Dan came around the corner he had a guy in front him...




We felt bad for the guy in front of Dan because we scared him. He wasn't expecting there to be people cheering and taking photos. We really knocked him off his game. Dan knew we were going to be sitting there. It was funny though, the guy laughed about it. Dan didn't miss a beat and soon after passed the guy that was riding in front of him.


Then we headed back to the finish line to wait for Dan to complete the race. It got crazy windy and cold.
Poor Muffins.Video of Dan finishing the race. (Listen to the wind!)



It was a very inspiring day. Even though all these people were way better on a bike then me, I just use it as motivation to get better myself. Everyone starts somewhere. I got sick a few days after watching this race so I haven't been able to ride my bike at all. The withdraw is killing me. It may sound silly, but it's addicting. I never thought I would be addicted to something that is considered exercise. I look forward to watching other races in the future. I hoped you enjoyed my photos.