Eric Franck,Myself and John Majors from Pittsburgh,PA headed down to Ducktown,TN for the second annual Cohutta 100 mountain bike race. The race is the first of The National Endurance Series. The sight of the race was the Ocoee White Water Center which also happens to be in the area of the kayaking section of the 1996 Olympic Games.
The race kicked off Saturday at 7AM and began with 10 miles of beautiful rolling single track. Eric and I stayed together for most of the single track. I was thinking "man I'll take 90 more miles of this stuff". My thoughts (or were they dreams?) would not be answered. The course then dumped out onto a gravel road which would be our home for the next 79 miles. I can remember getting into aid station 3 and the guy said"you are all done climbing, the hard part is over" I replied "what is your name" he said "Sam" I said "well Sam if there IS any more climbing I am going to hunt you down at the end of the race" and I was on my way. I no more than left aid 3 and said to myself" I am gonna find Sam and let him have it". There was plenty of climbing to come. It seemed as though every downhill there was an uphill double the elevation as the downhill. After mile 80, I strolled into aid 5 and the friendly staff informed me that there was one big climb left to aid 6 and then a technical downhill into the finish. I was leary thanks to Sam of their information, however I pushed forward. There was definitely more than one climb left and it was far from a technical descent into the finish.
The views were fantastic in the Cohutta's and the race was fun despite all the gravel roads. Thanks to Sam (whom I never found after the race) and all the others at the aid stations because If they told the truth how many people would want to continue?
Eric rolled in at 12:38 and I was able to finish in 10:05. The race was won by Chris Eatough in 6:45 with Tinker Juarez coming in second at 7hrs even.
