Idyllwild Spring Challenge RR

[jfromlv]

Headed out from home at 6 am, and just made it there in time for registration, which was supposed to close at 8:30. Got there at 8:35 (a little tribute to Shinken!) and there was still a huge line at reg. Race start time was supposed to be 9, but with the line, they moved it back to 10. My daughter, who will be 10 in two weeks, and her cousin, who is 10, were all set and ready to take on the 6.5 mile short course. The first pic is them lining up, my daughter in the pink helmet was smiling now, she had not seen the climb yet. About 2 classes in front of the girls, the fire truck pulls up, blocking the start, someone was hurt, but never heard exactly who, or what the injury was. Anyone know?

They took off, and it was pretty much the first half of the 24 hour course, with a long climb to start. They started really strong, shifting when they needed, even riding the wooden bridge, instead of straight through the water! The climb is long, especially when you're 10 years old! The girls did some whining and complaining, but they made it to the top. Started descending, and the smiles reappeared. My daughter hit a tree root, and grabbed a handfull of front brake simultaneously, resulting in her first official ENDO! She got up, and after a few sniffles, she kind of laughed it off and was good to go. Started across a long meadow, and I begin to hear the hiss of my front tire, DANG IT! I pedaled way ahead, found some shade, and started to take off the front wheel. I was riding my Enduro, which had the Fox 36 on it, and discovered that my axle would not come off, the loctite for the screw had broke loose, AGAIN! I know there was a thread, somewhere on STR about this, and I had posted that the loctite was working out great. Yeah, not so much anymore. I was relegated to walking/running. We got to the top of the last climb, and the girls took off flying down the singletrack! I went ahead and jumped on, front flat and all, and hung in the back. My daughter is a slower descender than her cousin, so cousin Skylar, and my brother Joe, took off. I stayed with Haley, and she finished strong. A little over two hours to finish, and they were troopers just for finishing.

Awards were taking forever, so we grabbed the awards, and made our own podium! Two first places! The girls were in different age groups. Most of the racers were super polite, and gave the girls a lot of encouragement. Sorry I did not get a chance to meet other STR peeps out there, I think the Dad's had pre-race jitters, and we weren't racing!

[Waldo]

Too cool. Good job ladies, and good job Dad for the support!

[sheclimbs]

Love this!

[Sharky]

AWESOME !! Congrats to them...I see a future downhiller behind that Incycle jersey.
Cool dad award for sure here...

[jfromlv]

Forgot to mention the super cool awards! A slab of granite with the Spring Challenge logo, and 1st place engraved on it, very unique, someone put a lot of work into making them.

[maxwell]

Nice "J"!!

I know the feelings you had when they finished.
Proud, happy, and relieved. There's no better feeling!

[BFloFoxRider.]

i bet i couldnt have kept up
hahahaha

[Vince]

[dirttorpeedo]

sandbaggers!!!!

[fueleater]

That's super cool! Great job ladies!