Rim Nordic Race June 28, 2009: Race Report-Kim Finch

Editorial by RL Policar

Kim “Champ” Finch headed up the big mountain (Big Bear,Ca.) with Tony and David Sanderson in tow to race Rim Nordic. As always, she had a great race and she even took on the responsibility as Team Boss for the day. Read her report below.

Up early on my birthday morning for the trip to Big Bear. Tony Finch, David Sanderson & myself are off and running after a nice breakfast of Buckwheat/oatmeal pancakes made by Tony. We arrive to an awesome morning at the Snow Valley parking lot around 8:00am. Blue skies and nice temps as we all head over to registration. Pop a few “Sport Legs” for all of us and get to warming up. I personally love racing this venue as the course is full of single track up & down not the typical fire roads, and the crew that puts this series together are just great people.

Cat 3 race start time 9:00am & Cat 2 start time 10:00am. I line up at start line and count down begins. We are off to the first climb which goes quickly in to single track and some congestion, remember we have gone from a sea level to at min 7,000 ft elevation so it is almost 2-3 miles before my chest and lungs gain some form of rhythm. I clear the first climbs to a fun, fast decent and then a hair pin, better yet a U-turn that you almost have to stop for and that’s where I got cheers from the team!

From here we have very intense climb that is soft dirt and very steep. At one sharp right hand turn, there were a few riders stalling in front of me. I quickly decide that it would be quicker to dismount and jog the hill. Remount after passing a few men and finally hit the fire road, a water station there and a chance to recover with Hammer Gel and spin out the legs. This is the point when I finally felt I could breathe and the heart was not coming out of my chest!

The remaining course was just sheer fun! The single track decent were soft but so much fun! The corners & switch backs had some nice banks building up on them and you could drift through them. The course was 8.4 miles per lap. I was only in for one lap but Tony & David felt the need to do two laps! I finished the race and took 1st place with a time of 1:08:20.

David Sanderson

Looking good David!

David was the first to come through and was looking still pretty strong. I passed him some fresh water and he kept going. Then Tony came through looking very strong, passed him on fresh water as well and then was able to catch him again at the hair pin turn. Snap a couple photos and off he went. After the race Tony said he was able to clear all the hill climbs in both of his laps, this is awesome because those climbs are brutal!

Can you tell Tony Finch has been working out?

Now I can…

I worked the pit crew after finishing my race for Tony & David. As they were doing two laps. Tony racing the Cat2 men’s 45-49 which had 16 riders and David was racing Cat 2 Single Speed which had 11 riders.

David pointed out that the first decent was fun as he was trying to make jumps out of everything. Both guys looked exhausted after crossing the finish line. We had a bit to eat and hydrating while waiting times to be posted! Tony’s finish time was 2:01:07 . David’s finish time was 1:53:49. Once again Mtnbikeriders.com was out there giving it their all for the love of the sport!

As always we would like to thank all of our sponsors for their support. “Sport Legs” thank you for your contribution as they are the saving grace after those climbs!