Winter Park Hill Climb Race

I somehow got talked into my first mtn bike race up at Winter Park for their hill climb. It's an uphill 5mile push to the top of the ski area that covers 2200ft vertical as shown in this trail map. Having only seriously ridden trails in Colorado since last August, I was a bit nervous about coming in last place. To ease the fear, I followed some good pre-race advice by friend Mike who posted the whole account of the race on his blog. It turns out I didn't do bad at all in my race class and wasn't last by far. It was inspirational to even compete, but the best feeling was climbing up trail to the sound of clinking cow bells and Mike yelling at my ass to pass at least 3 more riders before hitting the finish line.