The Firebird 40 was scheduled to happen on Sunday, but typical early season Colorado weather moved in over the weekend and made the course unrideable. British people regularly chuckle at American MTB races getting cancelled due to rain, but the weather and trail systems work a little different over here. A lot of the trails are actually on public property, so the idea of riding them in less than ideal conditions is not actually possible. Secondly, the mud over here is often very clay like – making it impossible to make progress due to your bike getting clogged up. Hence – no race in Eagle on Sunday. I was a little disappointed, as the pre-rides had shown the course was fantastic, and with 8000 feet of climbing, it would have been a challenge.
With a lot of saved up energy, I needed to do something productive on Sunday morning. I rounded up a small group of other people put out by the cancellation, and headed to Grand Junction. Colorado: two hours from snowy mountains to warm desert. We rode part of the course for the upcoming GJ Offroad. Carter Shaver, Jake Wells and Kris Ochs. Probably a group of people that would never have ridden together under any other circumstances. That in itself was pretty cool. I was happy to have the chance to ride Butterknife top to bottom once again before race day. It’s just a little too much trail to ride the day before the race.
