Steamboat Stinger

This past weekend we caught up with Sam and Deidre in Steamboat, Colorado for a great visit and some mountain biking. While we were in town, I teamed up with Lorraine York (Deidre’s mom !) and entered the Steamboat Stinger Mountain Bike race in the Coed Duo (Open) category. For the Duo categories each teammate rides one 25 mile lap. To add to the excitement, Lorraine and I were competing in the same race category as Sam and Deidre (!).

I took the first lap which saw a wide variety of conditions due to passing rainstorms. The large field produced quite a traffic jam as the course hit a tight single-track section very early in the race.

After the initial 1500’ climb it started to rain fairly steadily as I descended into the adjacent valley. Unfortunately, the rain changed the course conditions from tacky wet, to slippery, flying mud during this descent.

Thankfully, the rain stopped as I arrived at the bottom and the trails started to dry quickly due to the low humidity. After climbing back up to the top of the ridge again I was greeted by an “unofficial” Aid Station that was stocked with PBR handups as well as bacon strips.

As I rolled back to the Start area at the bottom of the initial hill, Lorraine was ready for the handoff and laid down a fast lap.

At the end of the day we finished in 23rd place in the Coed Duo category. Sam and Deidre had a great day with a 2nd place finish (and a faster time than the Mens Duo winner !).