2013 Snake Creek Gap, the January Edition.

The Beautiful Pinhoti trail system.

Holla from the hills of North Georgia!

2013 Snake Creek Gap TT was this past Saturday. For those of you that don't know what Snake Creek is, I'll give you a brief run down... Its a 34 mile mountain bike race with a time trial format. Sending racers out in 20 second intervals to conquer their best result ascending over 5,000 feet of climbing and racing over the best singletrack the Pinhoti trail system has to offer! And oh yeah, it gets progressively more challenging leaving the most difficult rock gardens for the last few miles when you're at your weakest.

This was the first time I have had the chance to do this race but I'll be honest, I was well prepared having ridden the course several times prior. My friends and I frequent North Georgia to ride the Pinhoti trails all the time. I had a goal in mind for this race, there is tough competition and I signed up for Money Class hoping to make a podium spot. Typically, the Man himself Thomas Turner(Jamis Bicycles) wins this event with a low 2:40ish time. Smokin! My goal was to get in the 2:50ish range.

We arrived at the Dry Creek Trailhead at what we thought was plenty of time to get a head start from all the other racers. Everyone on our team wanted to be some of the first to go off, advantage being that you don't have all the "trail traffic" passing all the slower racers that start ahead of you. Well, no such luck for us. The line was already massive and some racers were already leaving!

We got geared up/bundled up, said our best wishes to each other and the race was on!

And as if a 30 degree start isn't cold enough..... try this...

Being this race is in January it's cold as balls. The most talked about part of this race is a creek you have to ride across 10 mins into the race. It's deep. It's cold. And it's gonna suck for a few miles after you ride through it! On the double track climb after the creek crossing, I probably passed over 50 riders. All of them very polite with my eagerness to pass with every second counting in a TT. I encountered my first and only real issue with the race on the first singletrack climb, it was bottle necked with over 30 people and everyone walking. WALKING! NO! I had no choice but to throw my bike over my shoulder and pass how I could. I've ridden this climb in training several times and I lost major time due to the pile up. I keep my nerves under control. Reached the summit and started the gravel road descent to Pine Needle Hill. The race has a "half-way" point. The first half of the course is super flowy and way faster than the last half so I rode conservatively passing as safe as I could. My mentality was to conserve energy for the last half, especially the last 8 miles, because those are the most technical and will suck the life out of anyone with weak legs and soft lungs. I reached the half way point somewhere around 1:15. YES! 5 mins under my goal time, I was stoked and keep my head down with a bright attitude for the hell that awaited!

The last half of the race starts with a 2.5 mile climb with some steep pitches. The trail basically continues to climb until you dump out into a double track/gravel road climb about 1.5 miles long that then enters the last singletrack section of the race. Get your food in here because you can barely drink in the last hour of the race if your objective is to hammer. It's rock city! This was it, I conserved all I could anticipating this section. with about 5 miles left to go there is a sections called "the wall". Fear by most and conquered by few. However short, it's steep enough it's hard to walk up without a 200+ HR. I kicked it into low gear and climbed the wall with 2:20 on my clock. Right on schedule for a 2:50!

I think it was the fact that I had most of the team just behind me, I really expected a few of them to catch me at this point in the race. It gave me extra motivation to hammer down. I felt great and cleared the last few miles with confidence.

My official time was 2:47. just under 3 mins slower than Thomas Turner. I'm ecstatic. Hard work and training really does pay off. This race was a gauge for me. A test to see how my season my go. It's early in the season to be digging so deep, but it's nice to know that without any intensity training I had this good of a result. Right now, I'm sitting 2nd in Money Class and I'll be back in February to hopefully beat my January time!

Anyone looking for a sweet ass back country MTB race. The Snake is it! Great trail, great support and great fun!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!