Eagle Classic

The Vail/Beaver Creek Mountain Bike race series officially kicked off tonight with the Eagle Classic. Now I have lived in Eagle for almost a year, and this is one of the courses that I haven't yet ridden..... I am feeling pretty good and expecting a top ten finish. I had a slight crisis situation yesterday that may have prevented me from partaking in this event. A friend from school was going to help me put my bike together, but something came up and I went into Mt. Pedaler at about 5:30 yesterday and asked Charlie if he would be able to put it together and have it ready by the time of the race. He said sure. They closed at 4:00 on Wednesday, and finished my bike at 3:30.... Going into a race with never having ridden the bike before.....
not sure how I felt about that, but not sure that I had much choice. Got to the race and my chain got stuck between my bottom chainring and my bike, and I couldn't get it out. Because of this I only had 2 minutes of warm-up. Race started out going uphill, I started out a little further back than I wanted, and started passing people left and right as we went up this dirt road hill. A little bit from the top I fell off the pace of the lead 7-8 riders, but once I went over the top I was able to put it in the big ring and scream down the descent at about 33 mph. I missed the next turn and skidded past it, and then decided to shortcut through some sage...... BAD IDEA!!!! There was a large boulder in front of me that I couldn't avoid, and it sling shot me over the handlebars, down into this ravine on the other side of the trail.... I landed on my forehead and face (the reason for the skin missing on my upper lip and chin). I cracked my helmet in the front and had 2 bruises on my head from the impact of the dirt hitting my helmet.... Thank God for helmets!!! I sat up and collected myself for about 5-10 minutes, and then I continued on and finished the race. I even beat a few people and got 5 points for my team. Hope to not crash next time. I think I would have finished somewhere in the 5-10 range had I not crashed. Sweet bike though, huh? This thing is awesome! Thanks Matt and Wheelfast! I will get a review up on it as soon as possible.

34. 501 Chris Woods Ski And Snowboard Club Vail 44:36 5
35. 401 Brandon Bancker East West 44:53 5
36. 441 Bern Krueger 45:28 5
37. 570 Antonio Ascencio 45:55 5
38. 1094 John Krueger 46:50 5
39. 594 Paul Amicucci Cordillera Treadheads 47:02 5
40. 448 Nicholas Brummer Mountain Pedaler Of Vail 47:27 5
41. 683 Aaron Adams 50:05 5
42. 1101 Eric Benson 56:44 5
43. 1106 Matt Lydens 1:43:18 5
44. 562 Ben Dale Pedal Power - Streetswell 1:44:08 5