It is finally the end of the AR
season for Marc and I with the last race of the 361 Adventures Unbridled
Series, the classic The FIG. Around 125 racers registered among the 54 teams
that will adventure in the Red River Gorge Area.
For once we were right on time
with no misadventure to arrive at the bike drop off but as always the pre-race
unexpected happened. While tightening my seatpost to drop the bike at the TA
before check-in, the screw of the clamp broke off right in middle and all the
shop around were about to close. One hour later we found a solution using a CP
screw that Dallas gave us at the check-in. After some struggle to remove the
broken screw from the tread with Doug’s plier, we were finally able to drop the
bikes and gears for tomorrow and just missed 10minutes of the pre-race meeting.
After getting the race
instruction and the 3 maps (1:24000), we plotted and strategized our route for next
day 12hr fun. While plotting we realized that the race will be not too hard for
navigation so being fast will be key.
Quick breakfast and canoe set-up
before the last meeting and start. At 7am the herd of racers was set free, and
we all rush on foot downhill from the start towards the paddling section. We
gave up on the idea to cross the camping area to cut a bit of distance, and
went up on the dam just on the other side of the camping and then down the same
dam to reach TA1 where our canoe was waiting for the fun paddle ahead.
The lake is pretty small, but as
always the 361 crew found an interesting and fun way to keep us a bit more on
the water. Basically they set up a moving boat CP that we had to visit after
punching each boat leg CPs. That was a lot of fun and required a bit of thinking
to avoid traffic jam at the CPs and near the moving flag boat.
After 45min we were down,
avoiding all the boat traffic and reached the TA2 first before taking off for
the first trek of the day.We got into a nice easy pace, found CP5 near an arch and crossed No Complaints and Deviate on our way down from the CP at 5-7min behind us.
Then the stupid mistake of every
race happened. I lost focus being too confident on the easy navigation and
stayed on a road 3km more than what we should missing a trailhead. That costed
us 17min and we were no more at the lead of the race.
We arrived to the TA in 4th,
after No Complaints and just right after Deviate and Topo. It was time to be
smart and to push to try to catch up.
Instead of going up by powder
mill single track as the other teams in front of us did, we went up by an ATV
road and that will turn to be a game changer. Even if half the way to the far
out northern CP9 was really muddy we managed to stay on our bike for most of
the time and avoid too much pushing. Teams that decided to go reverse way would
have to struggle with all the mud on the way down and that always cost time. We
collected CP10 on our way to CP9. We were then on a really nice double track
and were able to collect CP8 quite fast.
We started the last 20k long trek
of the day being back at the lead of the race. The call was to collect CP13,
14, 16, 17 and 18 before deciding on the way back to go or not to CP15 that was
far off the other CPs. We crossed Deviate on our way back from CP18 and 2 min
behind them we crossed No Complaints. We estimated that we had 30min gap on
them. 
After thinking 2min about playing
safe as we didn’t think other teams would have time to go to CP15, we decided
anyway to go and tried to clear the course are we were only at 8hr30 in the
course. The way to CP15 was a big push with Marc putting the watts in the climb
to give a fast pace. This went faster than expected. We then headed back to TA5
in way less time than anticipated as Marc was still pushing hard to keep us in
a fast pace.
We were actually able to jump on
the bike for the last 18km leg to the finish still in front of Deviate and No
Complaints realizing that the CP15 detour didn’t cost us much time (around
20min more than avoiding it).
In 50min we were done after
collecting the 2 last CPs with Marc in beast mode (after an energy gel) pulling
us till the finish line, almost sprinting in the last climb to the Nature
center. We learned later that we were the only team to clear the course.
That was the best end of the
season possible for TJ79 Team Moziatex as we won for the first time the FIG and
for the 2nd time in a row the Unbridled AR series. The first long
bike leg definitely played in our favor after the dumb mistake I made on the
first trek leg. As always Marc as the best teammate possible kept us on a good
pace to make up for my mistake and did a fantastic work pushing us all the way
from CP15 to the finish despite a bad lower back pain.
Another year full of new and old
friends, learnings out of mistakes and great times in the wild. Thanks to
Moziatex Bikewear for their support and perfect outfits that kept us moving in
the best conditions through all the conditions we encountered. Thanks to all
the AR community for creating such a friendly and great environment and making
this sport so fun.
The 2018 AR season is over for
TJ79 Team Moziatex, next stop will be in Chilie for El Cruce trail running
stage Race and then a good Christmas break.
See you all next year with big smiles and for tons
of adventure. 
