Clever. Wish I could claim I had come up with that one! Just ran what I believe to be my eighth running in the 12th edition of this Adirondack classic yesterday. The Black Fly Challenge is put on by Pedals & Petals bike, flower, gift, and mtn. outdoor sports shop of Inlet NY. That photo above is of 2007's official t-shirt graphics. Makes those little fellers look almost too cute to swat. Believe me they're not. Stopping to change a flat is the equivalent of a piranha infested South American river crossing. This is a race occupying a domain that bridges the gap between a road and mountain bike race, and is an event that I've loved since I first participated in it several years ago. Each year this race alternates directions with the start trading locations between Inlet and Indian Lake. Approximately 10 miles of narrow, hilly, coarse pavement; 29 hilly miles of seasonal gravel road across the Moose River Plains with occasional, random, partially embedded surprise rocks ranging in size from softball to basketball; and a finishing mile of non-technical singletrack for a total of 40 point-to point miles. All this is covered at the breakneck average speed of 20 mph by a leading pack of pedal pushing speed junkies that attack like a poorly treated junkyard dog.
The tool for this job was my Giant cyclocross bike. I was pleased with my results, finishing 3rd in class and 6th overall of 208 finishers. That's the top 20, above. It was my understanding that those two Sport riders in the top 6 mix, and several other of the top finishing Sport riders were unlicenced Experts who raced Sport because they weren't allowed to buy a one-day licence for Expert. Once the race settled down and we were split into our little groups by the relentless attacks in the first 12 miles, I traded pulls in a group that was finally whittled down to 4 riders; myself, Andy August who finished 4th, and the pair of riders who finished in 7th and 8th behind me. Those latter two actually dropped me on the final gravel road climbs in the last 4 or 5 miles. I could see them, but despite my best efforts I just couldn't bridge. They out of gas by the effort however, and I revived by sight of a final mile of asphalt leading to the finishing singletrack, I caught and passed them both just as we left the gravel road and then held a small gap to the finish. Of interesting note is that the overall winner, Robert, 'Duncan' Douglas (a rider I've raced against before in a couple of road races last year), is a former member of the USA Olympic biathlon team who represented our country in the Lillehammer Olympic games. Those final two pictures are of the post race awards party in Fern Park, and an interesting sculpture in the Village that if I recall correctly was titled 'Future Faces of the Adirondacks'.
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