Thee Dakota Five-O Cometh

The annual Dakota Five-O mountain bike race is coming up. Sunday September 4th, to be exact. I had the foresight to get signed up before entries closed. This is the first (1st) year they’ve capped the numbers and the number capped at is seven-hundred (700) riders.

This will be the second (2nd) year I’ve participated. It is the race that convinced me a full suspension mountain bike is the thing to have for this race. It is a bit of a rough course. There are still those who will roll this fully rigid. Seriously. And, the single-speeders come out of the woodwork for this race and usually place high.

This race is almost entirely singletrack. There is the gravel road to the trail and then back off the trail, but in large, it is all singletrack. Rapid City Ross says they’ve taken out one (1) section but added others. Regardless, there will be the PBR / bacon stop toward the end of the race and at the top of a bitch of a climb.

With all the singletrack digging I’ve been doing this summer, training has been, well, almost non existent. R’uh r’oh, Scooby. What I remember from the past Five-O is this fifty (50) mile bike race feels like the equivalent of an one-hundred-fifty (150) mile road race. At the end a dude is SPENT. And sore. And thirsty. The remedy for the sore and thirsty is, of course, beer. There will be plenty of that at the end courtesy of Crow Peak Brewing.

All in all I’m very much looking forward to this great race. But almost as much I’m looking forward to getting the hell out of town for a few days. As you well know, it’s been a long, hot summer and I’ve spent the greater part of it directing and digging trail digging.

Ride On.