Great result for @Nate_Pearson at the Telluride 100! Can’t wait to hear more about it on Thursday’s podcast.
Edit: not posting place/time to avoid spoilers. Look it up if you’re interested.
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Here is the link to the results page (to save repeat googling, that I had to do 
)
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Seems like it was a tough day: tons of DNFs. Good choice doing the 50 for sure.
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Let’s do podcast bingo. I’m going for ‘sprint finish’
I understand the desire to race, but this just seems stupid and reckless. Hope if any of the people you raced with or were near will let you know if they test positive. Especially since some decided to come from current hotspots include Arizona, Georgia and Texas. But my guess is that they won’t. It’s a shame that USAC allowed it and that the race thought it was still a good idea. They mention that this will be around for years, as their reason and that’s a lie. It won’t be. Not racing for a year isn’t the end of the world.
If a pro baseball team can’t keep its players safe, I don’t know how you expect some amateurs to.
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I was riding in Aspen the same day. Weather was damp. And periodic rain shower/thunderstorms. Telluride may have been similar.
Every root and rock became a spot where you could slide out or lose traction. Probably increased effort 5-10% vs dry.
Harder to keep motivation to finish in conditions like that vs blue skies.
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A few of the crew I ride with competed in this. Sounds like the conditions were pretty brutal. The pics were from the entire weekend were pretty amazing. Has me wanting to buy a mountain bike !! Great job Nate and anyone else who participated.
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Not the thread for this bro.
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They did staggered starts. And the field was very small. And the races were 50 or 100 miles, so riding by yourself for most of the race. Outside. In the fresh air. I’d say pretty much no risk. Certainly not compared to doing anything indoors like eating in a restaurant.
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I agree. The biggest risks would be the start, finish, and any neutral feeds. If you don’t do neutral feeds and are able to distance during the start and finish I would consider it relatively low risk. Maybe only a bit higher than a typical trail ride and much lower than what I’ve seen out of the Tour of North Georgia recently.
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Telluride was worse weather:
I’ll talk about it on the podcast, but I think they handled it very well. I didn’t use any aid stations and had someone hand me a hydration pack about 2 hours in. I think I road by myself almost the entire race and didn’t see anyone for like the last two hours.
I actually see more people riding on local trails on a normal training day.
Colorado was really good at wearing masks. They even had signs up like EVERYWHERE about it. Everyone was wearing masks outside too. We either ate our meals at the condo or outside (I was staying with Ryan Standish and Keegan Swenson).
The only thing that erked me a little bit was I thought the entire thing would be a TT start but it was like waves of 20 people. That broke up pretty quickly though as there was a descent road climb very early.
For air travel, I had an N95 mask on which I think would make it very hard for me to get or transmit covid. I did eat once in the airport each way, but I was able to go far enough away from everyone else to eat by myself.
That being said, I’m not sure I made the right decision going.
As far as the race goes, I was bambi on ice skates in the mud in two sections. I’ve never MTBed in the mud, and this was a great chance to learn! My power was good, and I improved my skills, but I’m disappointed how slow I went.
I crashed 5-6 times with one really hard one where I hit my head hard 
.
It was a cool race and I’d like to do the 50 again in dry conditions. The trails/scenery/town are amazing.
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Amazing result, I wont post it here, but well done. Especially in those conditions. You should be really stoked and you learnt a ton of stuff by the sounds of it for Cape Epic.
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It looks like a miserably good time. 
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I rode that weekend in Aspen. Similar weather but not as bad as Telluride. Most of the riding I do in Colorado is on dry trails, unlike some of my rides on wet trails when I lived in the Midwest. I’d forgotten how much of a pain it is riding on slick roots, especially those that run diagonally across the trail. And riding through slick, slimy rock gardens. Almost unpleasant! Apart from that, riding in inclement weather isn’t too bad!
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Good to see you did well and took precautions but I will say why take the risk. The possibility of picking it up and passing it along to others by doing something you didnt need to do just doesnt make sense to me.
I know we are all anxious to get back to do what we love. This virus isnt magically going away and the way it is going there will be a lot of deaths. It will in some fashion still be here for a few more years even with a vaccine as there are a lot of people in the world to treat.
Leaders need to do what is needed in these times. Those in power continue to fail. In my country, Canada we had our PM say one thing and then do the opposite. The leader of the opposition took unnecessary risks with travel with others. The Premier of Ontario didnt follow his own rules. If we are to get through this with minimal deaths everyone and I do mean everyone needs to do what is required. Everyone needs to be a leader and set the proper example. Wear a mask and practice social distancing. Dont travel unnecessarily. Do your work, stick to your small bubble of people. Let the numbers drop. This is going to be like this for sometime.
Sorry for the rant…but I want more leaders to lead.
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To be fair to Nate, racing bikes is part of his job. He doesn’t have to do it, but you could also say the same of most jobs.
If he was taking appropriate precautions then it would seem less dangerous than my average day at work.
Personally, I’m quite interested to to hear how the race organisers and participants are dealing with the situation.
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These facts indicate that we need to determine the appropriate safety precautions that balance containment of the virus, while allowing people to increase their level of activity. Lockdown for multiple years is not a viable solution.
I think the precautions Nate took were the right ones. Of all the things he did, flying was probably the highest risk. But an N95 mask helps reduce the risk substantially there.
I was in Telluride several weeks back. The town is taking a lot of precautions - masks, very limited indoor activity, etc. - and people are adhering to the precautions.
Regarding races, I think there’s a way to run some kinds of races safely. No mass starts. Limited participation. No or very limited aid stations. No crowds at the start finish area. The Telluride race seemed to be ran that way. And the Audi 50 in Aspen the same weekend was run similarly.
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Way to go Nate! Good on ya!
I will say I wish you would have not risked it! Not worth it in my opinion for you or your family!
But you did it. I hope you enjoyed it! And I am glad you had the chance to do it!
Just stay healthy, get rested and be well!
I am looking forward to hearing all about it!
Awesome. Well done.
Hope all is well and the crashes have not taken much out of you.
You will need to tell Coach Chad how “Fluffy” he is looking last weeks podcast Ha Ha.
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