Whiskey 50, wow

By far the hardest 50 miles I have ever ridden.
I tossed around the idea of doing this mountain bike race for several weeks. I'm a roadie so I was a bit hesitant, but everyone told me it was an amazing race. Ryan from the shop egged me on by daring me to do it on a single speed. I do love a challenge, and a single speed was the cheapest way to build a mountain bike up in time for the race (like I said, I'm a roadie so no mountain bike in the arsenal of bikes). I had heard there was climbing(I had no idea) so I set the bike up with a fairly low gear, 32x20.
Prescott got a little snow the day before the race, so it was cold when we arrived. We had a nice dinner with Phil P. and his wife and went to the safety briefing. In the morning the weather was great, cool but not cold and clear a a bell with no wind. The race starts on Whiskey row in Prescott and climbs up out of town on asphalt, my advantage over these mountain bike types. I sailed up the hill passing people left and right. Eventually it turned to dirt road and then single track climbing all the way, advantage to the mountain bike folks, who passed me left and right. We climbed up into the woods finding snow on the ground and amazing views. The trails were challenging but not un ride able. After the first rest stop (about 15 miles in) you turn onto a dirt road that descends into Skull Valley, 12 miles down hill. The down hill is a welcome change from all the climbing until you remember that this is an out and back road. On the way back up the road rolls a bit alternating from Usery pass grades to Kong grades for the first 10 miles then it gets serious. With the single speed I found my cadence down to something like 10 RPM, using as much arm strength to pedal as legs. At one point I realized that all the other riders that I could see were walking, pushing there bikes up the mountain. The walkers were actually moving as fast as I was pedaling. Eventually it got so steep I just had to get off and push. There was about 4 miles of sustained grades over 15%, ouch. Once the mountain was bridged, the trail turned to gravity fed single track again, crossing dozens of flowing streams. Then a turn back onto asphalt to drop down into town. The organizers have a huge festival in the town square afterward and the people were super friendly.
There is no doubt I will be repeating this torture next year. The Whiskey was an epic ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/31284059