"Feets don't fail me now"

I awoke today with excitement. Yesterday I planed on riding the final piece of last years SSUSA course but my legs were total shit from the previous two days. A boring recovery ride was in order so when I awoke today and the soreness was gone I knew just what I was gonna do. La Milagrosa baby!

The infamous climb up Redington Road, still on the pavement at mile zero. I timed this climb today. It takes about 20 minutes to get to this point from moms and the watch read a hour seventeen at the top. Fun, fun, fun.
Just to make sure I gave the proper review the other day about the High Chiva section of the course, I rode it again. That's where I ran into this guy and a couple of his friends. The climb to Chiva still sucks...

The entrance to the best hour and a half you will ever have. If your thinking on bailing on this race after the first loop, DON'T. You will soon be greatly rewarded.



After riding for a few minutes on the Bellota trail, I got a flat. While trying to find something to stick in the hole to fill the void the Stan's wouldn't, I had caught the attention of some bees. One bee turned to a few, so me and my flat tire high tailed it down the trail a bit to get away from the bees and complete the repair. I would repeat this at least three times. Finally I gave up on the Stan's and put a tube in. As I was pumping up my tire the bees seemed to start to swarm. Run!!! Fifty yards later, I finally got air in the tire jumped on the bike and never looked back.
The entrance to Milagrosa ridge trail,


The following pictures are of the actual trail. It may appear I just took pics of some random rocks but rest assured there is a trail there. Just concentrate on staying on the bike. Try to ride this too fast and you will make mistakes. Mistakes are extremely costly here.As well as here...

The views on the Milagrosa ridge are amazing. Try not to be awestruck and keep you eyes on the ultra techy trail...


Remember, If you open it, close it...

Coming soon: La Milagrosa...

Not that I'm attending...

Today I prerode the SSAZ course. What the course was last year I should say. Not the whole course, just the opening 9 mile climb and the first loop. I had intended to do the whole thing but I got lost (again) and by the time I got back to Redington Road the watch was creeping up on 3hrs 30m. With the second loop being about a hour and a half then the 30m ride home I quickly did the calculations and realized I had not enough food or more importantly drinks to continue. No biggie, coming down Redington at mach one was a load of fun also. So much so I got rejuvenated and managed to pull a 30min race effort at the end of the ride surprising even myself.

After a 6 mile neutral start you will be treated to the opening climb of Readington Road...
Don't be alarmed by the gunshots. There are many areas where future assassins get to hone their skills. Worried about taking pictures of people with guns, I snapped a photo of the only vacant target area...
Keep going...

At this point the climb gets less severe... It's not over till after mp12 but it rolls after mp10
Finally the payoff...
The Arizona trail is some of the sweetest single track I've seen out here. Rocky, flowing and loose in sections it can be ridden very fast but takes some steady handling to do so. Unfortunately it's over in just a few miles and after a few fences and an annoying washed out stream bed comes the part of the course I disliked the most last year. The climb to High Chiva...
Watch your nuts while jumping the fence...

Washed out stream bed. I emptied my shoes after this, you of course will be racing...

The climb to High Chiva is best described as the fire road climb from hell. Estimated at 3 miles long, this fire road isn't your typical Ringwood fireroad. There could no truck in the fleet that could traverse this climb. To add insult to injury, The descent is worse. My chest was on the seat many times and the surface is extremely loose. By far the hardest unfun part of the course.

A little more single track then a rocky fireroad climb will bring you back out on Redington. I made a left to head for home you will be making a right to climb back up to the Arizona trail, this time you'll head the other way on the Arizona trail. Your SSAZ experience is about to get a whole lot better.
I'll check that out tomorrow for ya...