Big Sandy Race Report By Jeff Hecox

A month ago I had no idea this race existed, after watching a video on mtbr.com showing this single track downhill at a race in Fresno called Big Sandy it caught my eye. Well after doing the SF Enduro II last weekend with my buddy Justin and hearing that 10 of the Sheila Moon riders planned on going down, Justin said lets go.

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Fresno, we stayed in a hotel 25 minutes from the start. At sign up on Sunday morning I found, to get all of the sweet single track on the long course, (23 miles) I had only three class options, under 35 years of age or over 35 years of age or Single Speed class. Damn no 45+ class!

At 10 am they started by sending off the first race groups on the short course in 5 minute intervals, Then the Pro/Expert and single speed riders for the long course took off 10:10 am and the rest of the long course riders at 10:15 am.

The race started with a 300 yard road climb and then a right turn into some single track and I don’t think we saw more then 400 yards of fire road for the next 23 miles, all single track!, some double track for passing but not much.

The first part of the long course was the 8 mile Squaw Leap Loop, it started with a down hill to the river. After the bridge was a steep rocky hike a bike section that everybody was running with their bike. Then the loop opened up with some steep rocky technical single track climbs, about 1,400 ft to the summit in 2 ½ miles. I kept thinking the climb needed to go higher since the web site said 2,500 ft of climb for this loop. But down we started, 2 1/2 miles back to the river, fast narrow and rocky. I had the Superfly today and kept thinking the MOJO would be nice right about now. We must have crossed 5 or 6 small creeks on this loop with more to come for the day.


We crossed the river at the bridge and started climbing back to the start area, it was getting hot and I was beginning to think I didn't have enough water to last the race. Once we got back up to a parking lot we crossed the road and entered the River Trail for the next 15 miles to the finish. Things opened up on the River Trail, for the next 11 miles it was fast and bumpy, with 300 foot climbs and descents, there were some cows grazing about and more creek crossing. I passed a few people hear and there on the climbs. I passed two Sheila Moon riders in this section and then came across a local rider that I just could not drop! We ended up trading places 5 or 6 times over the next 10 miles, I was faster on the climbs and he would catch me on the down hills. The last climb before the finish was grinder, 800ft in a mile. I came across Isaias walking with his chain less single speed in this climb. I ran out of water with about 8 miles to go and was beginning to feel dehydrated, I had a dull headache but no cramping. This local rider was right there with me and we hit the last summit together. On the down hill to the finish he had me, with his full suspension bike and local knowledge of the downhill. Come to find out we were in the same class, damn!

12th out 19 in the Long Course Cat 2 35+ Big Sandy 03/28/10

Jeff Hecox