This one comes straight from the horse’s mouth. Big Bill Fear, he couldn’t get enough…
I had to get one more race in for the year and picked a good one. The 2010 Black Bear Rampage at the Ocoee White Water Center in the Ducktown TN. area was a test. The skys opened up Saturday afternoon and the rain came down in buckets. Sunday morning the trails were in pretty nice shape. The rain actually helped. The overcast skys helped too. We started at 9 AM and commenced the 41 mile race with a long climb. As the race wore on, I found 4 more long grinding climbs along the way. Mercifully, the climbs were separated by some really nice single track. The trail was in good shape for the area which meant, the rocks and roots were acceptable and not too wet. I had a ringside seat watching riders on two different occasions, go over their handlebars as they caught roots the wrong way with their front wheels. There were many flats along the way, too. The route took us through all of the Tanasi trail network as well as Brushy Creek. We went across the suspension bridge over the Ocoee river twice. The second time by, they told me I only had 8 miles to go. YES! Unfortunately, they were wrong. I had 18 more miles to go. Finally, at the end of one last climb to the finish line, I was done and a nice lady put a towel soaked in ice water around my neck. I needed that. At the end of the day, I placed 4th in pro/expert over 50. The next day (as I was feeling all my muscles ache), I check out my Merlin and found both tires had lost almost all air. I guess I was hitting those rocks and roots hard enough.
–Bill