End of 1st Day

We survived day 1 but what a day. I have thrown away one tire after
it suffered a 1 inch gash in the side. We lost about 15 minutes while
we changed it in the middle of a snow and hail storm at about 8000 feet.

We finished 29th in the 80 plus group in 5 hours 22 minutes. Probably
pushed and carried our bikes for 2 hours cos it was too wet and muddy
to ride.

So many people missed the cutoff but I guess they'll still be racing
tomorrow.

The bikes survived the day without any major problems.

Tomorrow will be a big day with 3 times the climbing and probably a
bunch more bike pushing.

The views are spectacular when the sky clears and we haven't seen any
bears on the trails yet.

Now we're in tent city with bags of gear to keep us warm. The tents
are quite large so it's not too bad.

Craig is about to give himself a little massage so no pictures right
now.

Hopefully we'll send another update tomorrow but it's an early morning
so it will have to wait.

Cheers,

Mark and Craig.

Sent from my iPhone