by 
That’s it, another Whiskey if the books. I’d say “Whiskey 50” but your author admits he did only the fifteen mile course this year. And “Whisky 15” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
That said, the 15 was stiff. It went from the, even though I did not The guy who was first into the corner was the first to finish. I was second behind him getting to the dirt, but not so much because I was trying to beat everyone up the hill: I was on a single speed. And a 34 x 18 on a two niner is a fairly stiff gear. I was out in front of other folks only because I didn’t have any lower gears to shift down to.
If I had, I would have used them. A lot.
That said, there was only a bit of walking on my part. I was surprised actually, and in a good way. I was able to get up on top of the gear and muscle through some difficult sections.
And that’s a good thing.
I got to the one feed zone on the 15 mile course and took my time eating an entire Cliff Bar, drank a whole bottle of water, refilled my bottles, checked out the view, bullshitted with SadCow, watched a bunch of people ride through and soaked up some sun. It was well worth the price of admission.
As I stood there looking way down at Skull Valley all I could think was: God damn am I glad I don’t have to ride out of that hole in this heat!
Sometimes the short loop has is upside, know what I mean?
The bike worked well, which, really, was a relief. I laced up the rear wheel on Thursday. Nothing like “racing” on brand new equipment, right? Then I took the front wheel off my cross bike on Friday and put on a bigger tire. I had wanted to run a 20 tooth cog on the back, but I couldn’t spin off the 18 with my crescent wrench.
The Gnome laughed at me. He said, “I can’t believe you don’t have a vise in that garage of yours. You’ve got 15 bikes and no vise. What’s up with that?”
“Dude, where’s your vise?” I shot back.
“Where’s my fifteen bikes…”
He has me at hello.
So, the 18 ended up staying where it was on the bike. The 20 ended up staying where it was was in the garage. And the world kept on spinning round.
Go figure.
I say this every year: Come out and do the Whiskey. This one hell of an fun event. The course is the real deal. This is Arizona riding, through and through. Kick ass singletrack, great views, gorgeous scenery. The 50 is very, very hard and the winner much deserved. The 25 is quite a challenge as well. And now I can personally attest to the quality of the 15. There was more climbing than I thought there would be, that’s for sure.
by 