Ore to Shore - The Justin Perspective

2006 has brought me to my first O2S race and it's been a memory all right. Warming up my legs felt good and I was able to stage in the preferred start area. The race started and I was settling into a comfortable position going from the road, transitioning into the dirt/grassy area. Then it happened. While riding along in the grassy area, what seemed to be the Hand of God slapped the rider in front of me and he just went down. Being that I was right on his wheel, I was able to share his fate as I unclipped and prepared for impact. This was a less than optimal situation for me to be in. I'm scrambling to my feet just hoping that the whole field doesn't run over my poor bike. I pick it back up, hopped on and just start tearing ass along the left side though the tall grass trying to make up as many positions as I could before it started to get too stretched out. Riding on the edge of lactic blow out I'm pushing though the sand till I start catching back up to riders I know. Jamie and I work together for a little bit trying to find a half way decent line though all the maddening sand. He and I eventually catch up to Terry Ritter and Pete. All 4 of us are supposed to get bottles from the same person and that thought crossed my mind for a second wondering if we would still all be together at that point and how pissed Katie would be trying to hand up to 4 guys at once. Then I remembered how pissed off I was and pushed harder. Pete and I eventually moved up a bit till we were moving along with a small group taking turns pulling. Then I caught site of an orange Bell's jersey. Working hard I bridged up to that group and was greeted by Jason Lummis. By this time we are within view of the huge shale hike-a-bike hill and we can see the lead group working their way up it. Lummis calls out to me "Dusty if you run it you can jump onto that group". Filled with glorious inspiration from Jason I charged up the hill to hop onto the back end of that lead group. Finally I'm back where I started out and my legs are just burning. The group was fast moving but kept surging and slowing like a pack of roadies. Robert Herriman was getting a little agitated with the lack of spine in the group. I could completely understand, but given how bad my legs were hurting I wasn't about to take lead. I stuck with this pack for quite a while and actually started getting a little worried that I might have missed Katie for my hand up as I was pretty much out of anything to drink. Just then we come out of the trail to a paved climb where Katie was standing, with a bottle in hand. With a new source of life blood in the form of a blue liquid I was back at it trying to hang on. More and more into the woods we rode, plowing though the sand. I HATE sand! Really it started looking like finishing was just who was just going to survive this race. I've never seen so many mechanicals in a race. Quite a few riders double flatted or had dérailleurs mate with a rear spokes. Eventually I had to take in some food and when I went to pop a Gu that's when a gap built. :-( Slowly riders started falling off and the line became pretty stretched out. I manged to stick out the rest with about 1 mile to go getting a terrible cramp in my left hamstring which really brought out the angry face. Hitting the pavement I came up on a guy who, as I passed, tried to hang on to my wheel. No even thinking of letting that happen, I grabbed the center of the bar dropped my head and just cranked as hard as I could. Made my last turn and comfortably crossed the line in 12th place. A pretty good experience all around I would say.

-Justin