Baker's Dozen MTB Race

This past weekend was the Baker's Dozen 13 hr MTB race. I'd heard this was a popular race, so when NCVC was looking to put together teams, I jumped on a 3 man team. This was to be my first MTB race since 24 Hours of Hell in Paradise, so I was glad that I got on a team that was just looking to get in some good riding.

We decided to camp, which later turned out to be a bad idea. The nice 80 degree temps on Friday didn't last. Learned a few lessons:

1) Don't buy cheap canopies. This canopy I'm staring at took about an hour to get setup...zippers were corroded from its last use on the beach. 30mph winds quickly snapped it.
2) When we make our summit attempt on Everest, we will not be packing a Coleman tent. 30mph winds caused it to cave in, accompanying showers infiltrated the tent that was no longer protected from the rainfly.
3) Don't let kids play in the tent before bedtime...they may think it's fun to unroll the sleeping bags, but when #2 happens, it's going to be a cold wet night.
4) A lesson I've learned before...Jim Kosek is a funny mofo, but Accuweather sucks. Don't trust them.


After a couple hours of sleep Friday night due to the fierce wind nearly blowing the tent over, we woke up to sunny, yet cooler skies. Carter and Jack rode the mini race. Here are our pre-race war faces.

All shapes and sizes were in the mini-races. Carter and Jack had to navigate through a lot of training wheels and tricycles.


Some folks camped in style, the boys found a couch for some post race relaxation.

The cows were staring us down for riding in their fields.

Despite not being in it to win it, my team did quite well. Halfway through the race, we were 6th of 36 teams...ended up finishing 9th. The course was flat, fast and fun. Starting to get comfortable on the Epic...probably a little too comfortable, as I got a little overconfident bunny hopping a log. Ended up doing a nice endo, breaking in the new bike with it's first crash. Looking forward to more MTB racing this year.