Whiskey Off Road
The Whiskey Off Road weekend has always been on my list of races to do. This year I am super stoked to be able to get down there and make it happen. I had never been to Prescott but after the weekend, I really want to get back down there and explore more of the trails and ride the vast trail network in the national forrest. The town is kind of a flashback to the 1800’s but has some great little spots for coffee and food.
Friday Night is the Fat Tire Crit, which brings the entire town out to enjoy and watch. It’s mostly just an exhibition event to have some fun and create some hype. The streets are lined with people and it has a great atmosphere. You have to ride the same bike during both days of racing but you can swap tires to something smaller with one rule of the swapped tires needing to be at least 38mm wide. It’s a short but extremely fast race with only 20mins plus 3 laps of racing. I ended up getting spit out from the front group with about 8 mins to go and felt like I swallowed glass shards the rest of the night because of the thin air and me sucking wind.
Sunday morning brought looming clouds, cold temps and the threat of rain. Luckily it held off until right after we finished. Literally, 10 minutes after crossing the line it came dumping down. The race was super fun, covered some sweet trails, under perfect hero dirt with nice and cool temps making it a great day. Half way through the course we descend a 9mi fire road into Skull Valley and then once at the bottom we flip a u-turn and climb right back to our starting point plus another 2 miles to the highest point on track before descending all the way into town. making for an 11mi climb total. That was what ended up deciding the race for most of the groups. Felt great out there but wasn’t able to hang with Decker and Wicks as they were motoring up that climb…haha, oh well not quite the same training as CX stuff. Still had a blast and was able to cross the line in 31st.
Glad to finish off my 3 weekends of traveling and racing with a solid day down there. It’s pretty funny how I focus on racing for 1hr and yet the last 3 weekends have been a 62mi, a 146mi and a 50miler. Good to be home now and riding long rides at the local spots. Nothing planned race wise until Lost N Found!
