Soldier Hollow Mountain Bike Race
Clean cassettes, sharp shifting, the ride ruinning smooth, the bikes awaited their finale: Solider Hollow. The month up to this race was the most stressful by far. Races every weekend, along with training in the week, it was a tough 30 days. So for the races that month had gone well, but it was Soldier Hollow race week now. For training during the race week, you normally ride pretty hard Monday, than do little, maybe 2 mile rides the rest of the week to keep the legs moving. Big, spaghetti dinners were also crucial starting Thursday night, and you wanted to drink at least 3 water bottles a day starting Wednesday. On Friday before every race, I tune my bike up and my brother’s bike too. This way you know
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Call ups allowed us to be able to get into a spot that we earn, instead of having to push our way through and starting bad. 10 minutes before starting, a man who worked with the league came out to talk to us about the rules and to call us up. Those 10 minutes were the most stressful, nervous minutes of my life. In fact, I am shaking writing this paragraph. Once you feel that feeling, it will be with you forever. The countdown to the race was a whole different experience in itself. Time slowed down, your senses were fine tuned, and nothing could distract you. This happens very race, every start. It is a crazy sensation that is awesome but terrifying at the same exact time. We sat and waited, make conversation with riders beside us. One thing I have noticed from mountain biking is no mountain biker is afraid to talk bikes with you. Give their bike a compliment and next thing you know you have a friend. I found it quite fun to walk around and talk to different people at the race. Finally the race began. Because we were on a paved road, we did a rolling start. A man led us to a certain point than he pulled off and that’s when we can start passing and speeding