I rode my first mountain bike race this past Saturday. My neighbor Vito (my "coach") is from Venezuela and he races. He told me about this race series and got me out there this weekend to give it a shot.
I'm glad he did. I had beginner's luck with a first place finish. Yeah Baby! The ride was a blast. It was about 18 mile race and I finished in an hour and sixteen minutes. Thanks mama for the strong quads! Couldn't have done it without them ;)
The most impressive thing was the diversity of people that actually get out there! there were high school teams, children age 10, old old guys etc.. Everyone was out there to take on the "Singletrack" (Singletrack is very narrow and typically rather technical bike trail).
Here are a couple photos and a link to the results.
(At the start -I'm behind the guy in red)
Results: http://www.cccx.org/mtb/2008/race2/2008_CCCX_MTB_Race2_Beginner.shtml