The Wild 100, located in Slatyfor, West Virginia along the Elk River, allows MTB racers the opportunity to ride on what is known as the Eastern America's riding Mecca.
The Short Hard Way or the Long Hard Way
By Jim Mitchell, Potomac Velo Club, August 16, 2008
Last weekend my friend Mark and I raced in the Wild100, which is a back country, checkpoint style MTB race put on by the Elk River Touring company right outside of Snowshoe mountain in Slatyfork WV. Mark and I signed up as a solo’s for this race, but we planned on riding it together. I was a bit apprehensive about riding this race with Mark. He has really been tearing it up in the adventure race circuit this summer, but to my relief, we came to a gentlemen’s agreement the night before the race that we would make it more of a tour of West Va. than a race.
So not surprisingly, we were about the only ones not suited up to blaze up the trail as soon as the maps were handed out. Matter of fact, it was a good 15 minutes before we determined there were no more pancakes to be had and threw a leg over the bikes to begin the long grind up Props Run. Having done some these longer events before, we knew that keeping a steady, consistent pace was the best way for us, um ‘senior’ riders to reel back some of the more junior competitors.
The climb up Props run lasted 7 miles and gained us about 2200 feet. In several places you had to ride through stream beds and negotiate rock gardens. The grade was fairly consistent, and we pushed up to the top at steady pace. In the first 6 miles we were able to overtake about 10 of the rabbits that had bolted ahead of us at the start . We checked in at the first checkpoint as we neared the top. Read the rest of this entry »