I \u201craced\u201d in Thompsonville, MI for the 17th annual Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race for the first time this year. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, it was set for the third Saturday in October, but I had a lot of fun. I signed up for the sport race which is two laps up and down Crystal Mountain. <\/p>\n
Friday before the race, I packed the truck up and headed my way up north. The weather was looking iffy, so I ended up going by myself. I hit a few showers on the way and made a slight detour onto some dirt roads for a quick bathroom break. My bike ended up covered in dirt\/mud, but by the time I got to the campground, the rain had washed all that away. I stayed at the Betsie River campground in a small cabin. I didn\u2019t realize it had power, but was glad there was an electric space heater. <\/p>\n
Saturday morning was very chilly, but I was up and out of bed before the sun came up. I noticed an all-day breakfast place that was nearby the race start on my through and decided that would be a great place to stop. I was not the only racer to stop in at Rosie\u2019s Country Caf\u00e9 and I was right, the food was pretty amazing.<\/p>\n
Filled up with eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy I made my way over to the packet pick-up. Even though I was in the third wave, I still had plenty of time before the race started. I took my number plate (and pint glass) back to the truck to keep warm and think about what I was going to wear for the race.<\/p>\n
I had brought my shoe covers, but decided against them, that was a mistake. I did a quick little warm-up and my fingers were freezing (even though I wore my long-fingered gloves) and my feet seemed to be okay. After my warm-up (and wishing I had grabbed a different set of gloves\u2026 I was worried about braking\/shifting, especially on the downhills) I headed to the start line and we were off a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t there to compete, but just enjoy the day\u2026 the sun was out, there was blue skies and the fall colors were fantastic. Everyone sprinted out of the gate, I wasn\u2019t really interested in pushing super hard, but found a couple folks to ride with. One of those riders was on a Surly Karate Monkey and was a single-speed. Also riding a steel frame, he gave me props when I passed by.<\/p>\n
My hands eventually warmed up, but my feet were very cold\u2026 I think the temperature hovered just under 40 degrees for the race. Going up the mountain was hard work, but the downhill made it worth it. I was hoping for a negative split, but my second lap was a few minutes slower than the first.
\nThe ending chute was exciting, by the time I got there on my second lap the ground had been torn up and was very soft, I almost ate it on the final turn, but was happy not have an unplanned dismount (especially in front of the crowd). <\/p>\n
In my mind, comparing this to the Soft Rock for Ore 2 Shore, they are about the same distance, but the singletrack in Peak 2 Peak make this race a lot more fun. I have a feeling if the weather cooperates, I\u2019ll be doing this one again in the future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I \u201craced\u201d in Thompsonville, MI for the 17th annual Peak 2 Peak mountain bike race for the first time this year. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, it was set for the third Saturday in October, but I had a lot of fun. I signed up for the sport race which is two laps up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,5,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1373,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions\/1373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnjeske.ddns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}