6 Hour of Warrior Creek Recap - Volume 1

Here in the lower Piedmont area of North Carolina the weather was cooperating for a nice long day in the saddle. As me, the burrower, and the culprit woke up ridiculously early to ride a bike towards the mountains. As we headed up I-77 and turned North/Northwest onto highway 421 towards Wilkesboro, the burrower pointed out something in which set the tone for the first half of the race. "Looks like it rained here."

Not only did it rain but once we got the course it looked like it poured. This was going to be a cold sloppy mess. We arrived at Warrior Creek in plenty of time and set up shop with the Mutt and the Mrs. Mutt. (I would suggust reading at least some of his non-sense to get different and probabably more articulate version of the race). I went to the registration table and signed in, not sure how it happened, but I also ended up with an extra t-shirt. Score one for the burrower for coming up to the table with me. At this time I also made an excutive decision about another race in the future that I had been pondering about for a few months or not, but I will save that for a different post.

Although I got there in plenty of time to unload, get my gear on, set up my music, listen to the pre-race instructions, line up and go...I did happen to forget something. Oh yeah, the warm up. This usually happens to me when I have plenty of time. I settled myself near the back 1/3 of the pack (which is where I usually finish anyway) and waiting for the starting horn to go off. Race started right on time and 300 riders rolled out on a chilly and damp morning.

The ride up the service roads was used to thin the field out, but what usually happens, this time included, you get rookie riders busting their ass to beat people there, and then hold everyone up about 2 miles in. Plus to make matters worse, the trail was slick. And when I say slick, I mean there was a layer of mud on the trail from the rain that made it almost impossible to get any sort of traction on the uphills, escpecially when I was running a small block 8 in the rear.

Now, you might be thinking that I would be streatching the truth about the condistions just to make me seem like a bad-ass who purposely decides to ride 6 hours in horrible conditions *which I am* but I was not stretching the truth this time. Check it out for yourself.
Thank you burrower for the pics.

It was brutal, the back tire spinning out on uphill sections, mud getting thrown in my face from the riders in front of me, all along the woods you hear "brake" and "rider down" from the constant struggle to stay up on 2 wheels. Well, the mud, the strugging to stay upright, the hike a bike up the bike while holding your bike upright sums up lap one. I believe I made it in 1 hr 30 minutes. Not to bad considering having to deal with traffic, mudslides and other natural disasters. Ill try to recap the other laps tomorrow, until then heres some more pictures.


The Culprit at the beginning, look, its white.


Me and Queen City Bike team member Chase at the beginning.