Medalla Ultimate Dirt Challenge/ Having a Good Time 101

Well the last few days I have been down in Puerto Rico livin it up in preparation for the Ultimate Dirt Challenge. BY FAR, one of the best and most fun races i have been to in my entire time racing. Having a fun course, good weather, a smoothly run event and having a good race, laying on the beaches and by the pool are only some things that make a race great but the hospitality of all those involved are what really make this race fun. The guys at big bear really need to talk to Doel:


This guy nows how to put a badass race on!

So the time spent in PR usually consisted of sleeping a shit tone (40+ hrs in 4 nights), eating, riding, laying by the beach, and eating again. The course was awesome, lots of winding singletrack weaving in and out of the trees with the occasional short steep climbs. The first couple days my body was kind of in shock due to the heat. I dont think i have ever sweated that much in my life. Here are a few pics.

The course.


The commute to the course.


The beach. Colt you would be proud of this pic.


All me, no help!



Jefe Y H Bomb


So the race went well. There wernt alot of people but i still know i had a good race. I raced UCI U23 which only had 4 guys including me in it. We started with the pros who had a total of 10, 4 of which were gringos like Twells, JHK, Broderick and Craig, the rest were PR natives. I wont the U23 and finished 6th from what im told in the pro field. It was a hard 2+ hr race. I had 5 or 6 bottles and 5 gels. After the race I went on photograph duty, yea i laughed pretty hard at that too! But a gringo is a gringo in PR and the locals loved us!


The band got playing.


The crowd was lovin it!


Wells won the XC and celebrated with the dirt jumpers in class.


And right as everything was winding down, mother nature unleashed her rath.



Monday was spent taking a "recovery ride" up some of the steepest roads i have ever been up. Some of them were so steep i couldnt sit down as i kept popping wheelies.






That night we went to Doel and Paoela' house to celebrate J's B day. It was a good time, Paoela made the party dog themed in memory of Jason incident with the little white piece of fur. As a whole this was probably the best trip i have taken and really encourage all that can to make down to Puerto Rico next year for the race. Thanks to Doel, Paoela, Aldy, J and H as well as everyone who made this trip great for me. I'll be down next year fo sho!