The month of March draws to an end and it's been awhile since I've thrown an update out. Let's see - we headed up to Bellingham to hang out and be abused by Kathy from Fanatik Bike in Bellingham.  She led a merry band of riders out on a "Tour de Bham" through the infamous terrain of Galbraith Mountain, out to the XC course for the Padden MountainPedal and down the other side over to Chuckanut Mountain.  The terrain was mostly single track, technical, rocky rooty with some substantial climbing.  Think 7 of the 10 did around 39 miles and 5,500' while 3 of us bailed out around 33 miles and 4,300' or so.  A few of us opted for a mellow climb back to the parking lot and the rest headed back up the single track and out to the Towers up at Galbraith.  A beautiful, sunny day and exposure some to lesser known trails.  I have to say the most pleasant surprise (after the long climb up the nasty fire road) was the descent from Chuckanut - shockingly rocky, steep descents, some really fun gnarly switchbacks, definitely need to go back up and there again.  What a great training ride for the BC Bike Race! 

Post-ride we headed out to Boundary Bay Brewery for some post-ride libations and to refuel from the work of the day.  Thanks to Kathy and the Speedy Beaver Racing (Carolyn, Casey & Dawn) gals that led the way and motivated us to keep moving!  Good luck to Kathy and Dawn at La Ruta, we know you're going to have an amazing adventure! 

Hmmm...what else?  There have been 2 Budu Races since the last post.  Race #3 was on a blustery Sunday day following the big Tour De Bham out at Soaring Eagle State Park in Issaquah.  Not the most exciting terrain but 100% single track, some rooty climbs and a fun fast descent right down to a sharp turn in between big boulders.  Jodi and I made it out there for that race and Jodi represented with a 2nd place finish in Expert.  With legs barely moving after my long ride the day before, I barely sneaked in a 3rd place in Sport. 

And to bring it all up to date, we finished up race #4 in the Budu Series yesterday.  Yesterday's race was on Whidbey Island at Fort Ebey State Park.  The site has great camping right at the site and the race course has some fun technical rooty drops on the downhill, some rooty and rocky climbs, and on the back side some fairly painful switchbacks.  Definitely though a great place to spend the weekend if you get reservations and a definite must-do next year!  Jodi demo-d a Diamondback Sortie Black and pulled in a 2nd place finish in Expert and I maintained (barely) a 2nd place finish in Sport.    Lots of pics posted on our Flickr site for those that were at the race.  You can check them out by clicking on the photo strip on the left - then looking for the Budu Racing - Fort Ebey album.

Thanks go out to all for a great March.  It's just winding down and we're about ready to figure out what's doing on for April.  As I write this, the weather is going crazy, there is supposed to be 20" of snow being dumped up north.  For those wanting a ski trip or two before spring - GIT IT!  For those of us trying to get up in the higher zones for training - not so awesome!  But we'll soldier on and fit them in while we can. 

Happy Trails!
Sturdy Bitch Racing