Rumble in the Jungle 2014

Fun race! I managed 16th. I dropped a chain at the first steep little climb right after the start and I had to stop to tighten my bar clamp when my bar nearly fell off on otter slide.

Some nice deep mud ruts, lots of flats and mechanicals, I rode over a strand of barbwire half buried in the mud 😱 Good tough racing!
 
5th Cat2 40-49. 50sec out of 3rd. A better starting position might have made the difference (JohnA told me...). Lots of traffic jams early in the first lap (yelling "rider" when there are 6 guys ALREADY clogging up the trail is not going to help you...we were riding too).

MylesF had a hell of a hit right in front of me but rallied strong. Another guy (19-29, I think) 2 of us caught up to on the 2nd lap who wouldn't consider moving over flipped right in front of me too. Moral: don't be in front of me.
 
Great ride today Mike! We had a great train going towards the end of the 1st lap and it would have been great to keep it going for the fast section. Moral of the story might be to stay behind you but my take on it is take the bar ends off before riding jungle! Sore back, bruised hand and a headache for my troubles but nothing advil and a beer won't cure🙂
 
I flatted after water crossing on 3rd lap, I think I may have burped a lot of air on a tire that was already soft. Luckily Segundo took pity on me and gave me his co2 after I realized I had no air in my camelbak.
At the short muddy climbs before ST into fish I was able to get enough air in to finish the lap, but dialed it back a bit. I was still able to finish behind Kirt, 7th ? in Cat 1 40-49.
Great course, fun to race it or ride with friends. Thanks TTC!
 
mfennell said:
Lots of traffic jams early in the first lap (yelling "rider" when there are 6 guys ALREADY clogging up the trail is not going to help you...we were riding too).
Click to expand...

I got a kick out of that too. A lot angry people out there today.

What do you expect when the sprint is about 200 yards long, before turning into a rocky course with nowhere to pass?

Is a start like this a feature and not a bug? Is the goal to reward the sprinters by allowing the top 3 to ride away while the rest of us get backed up in the mud and scream at each other? 🙂
 
I was a bit sketched Thursday at the preride with the wet slick rocks. But today was a BLAST! Loved it! I never ride the trails this direction so it was a great change of scenery. Kudos TTC!
 
Great job TTC - my goal was to finish and I did - barely . My wheel fell off with about a mile to go but got it back on eventually and finished . Now I need to get back out and train for the next one !
Congrats to Dylan and all the top finishers - you guys are awesome
 
MylesF said:
Great ride today Mike! We had a great train going towards the end of the 1st lap and it would have been great to keep it going for the fast section. Moral of the story might be to stay behind you but my take on it is take the bar ends off before riding jungle!
Click to expand...
The three of us were having fun, for sure. If I had seen those bar ends pre-race, I would have made you take them off!

Sore back, bruised hand and a headache for my troubles but nothing advil and a beer won't cure🙂
Click to expand...
I keep finding new bodily damage. "Hmmm...when did I do that?" I think tomorrow isn't going to feel so great.
 
I had a good race overall (Cat 1 SS, 4th out of 7). Some good racing with people in my class, some with people in gears, no mechanicals and no injuries. The course was great, challenging but doable, even for riders with poor technical skills--it just takes longer for us 🙂

It was good to have the Mexican food guy on site. We should have him at all the races 🙂

Thank you TTC, and especially Dave Van Wart for the effort put into crafting a new course for this year and for leading pre-rides (& Dillon too).
 
Haven't raced in over a year...

...but I picked up right where I left off, another podium! 3rd place Cat 2 50+

Great course and great vibe. A real MTBer's race.

I ride Jungle alot and this course was nothing like I'm use to, but I loved the challenge. Lot's of fun for sure!
 

Attachments

  • Podium @ Jungle.jpg
    Podium @ Jungle.jpg
    266.5 KB · Views: 407
Congrats Robin, Lance, John, Tj, Alex, the mad heckler and everyone else who had a good day out there. Course was awesome and TTC once again did a great job with this race. The only bummer about it is that it only happens once a year.

Big shot out to my man Bill....really awesome seeing him back on the cat 1 podium again.

My race was a disaster, tore open the side of rear tire 3 minutes and had to put a tube in. This was a first in a bike race since 2008. I have no idea how many races i have done since then, but I had never actually had to use my tube in a race until yesterday. So the race was over for me at that point, but I wanted to earn enough calories for a burrito, so I carried on. Made it to the top of cages when something went through my wheel and broke a spoke sending it into my cassette. Got that fixed, then at the end of lap two my front tire popped on the pavement of all places. Finally got it to seal after a mile or some of hitting it with co2 and finished. One of those days.....I blame the mad heckler...whenever he comes out, my day is usually an apocalyptic mess 🙂
But race aside it was awesome hanging out with the gang and even my wife, son and mother came out. Good times!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom