I’m selling the road bike!

I’m just kidding.  However, after only two times of mountain biking I am hooked.  About a month ago my good buddy Jimmy took me to Quail Hollow SP to ride the relatively flat 3.5mile loop that is not very technical.  I had loads of fun and I never hit the ground.  On my drive home that evening I was thinking to myself how I cannot wait to get back there to get some MTB’ing skills under my belt so I can check out the more advanced MTB trails in Ohio like Mohican SP.  Well, since then my weekends have been busy racing crits and road races in the ARBA series and I never got the chance to get back out on the trails.

Now fast-forward to this past weekend.  Again my good buddy Jimmy says “We should check out Mohican on Sunday.”  Now I am thinking to myself about how all my other friends that ride MTB’s told me not to go to Mohican until I get a couple months of riding easier trails in me.  However, how hard could the 25mile loop with steep climbs, fast descents, crazy hard switchbacks, and rock gardens really be right?  The answer for someone who has only been on a mountain bike trail one other time in his life is very simple, VERY HARD.  I now know that a rock garden is not a few fist sized rocks on the trail, but is more like basketball sized rocks that you either have to maneuver around or climb over.  This is not the easiest thing to do when you lack good bike handling skills.  And for someone who is not very good at descending in road races it is like twice as hard on mountain bike trails that have descents with loose gravel and switchbacks.  (Yes I jumped off the bike and walked down 2 after one of my “practice” crashes). Was I scared?  Yep!  Did I crash?  I did 3 “practice” crashes.  Did I do a lot of praying during that 2hrs 45min?  Yep and thanks J.C. for keeping me safe! Did I have fun?  YES, YES, YES. 

I cannot wait to go back and I cannot wait to take some of my Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling powered by Pathfinder teammates who have never been to Mohican there to experience the fun.  I have to give big props to Jimmy as well for being patient with me because we did the loop about 15 minutes slower than what he would normally do it in.  I also have to give big props to JR who told me how much fun mountain biking is and getting me on a MTB so I could start experiencing the fun first hand.  Although I am not sure if I will be able to make the first ABRA mountain bike race this coming weekend I do know that I definitely see some MTB races in my future. 

 

Thanks for reading. 

Billy