Missoula XC Drive and Pre-Ride

Missoula XC was in Missoula Montana. The drive was is about 19 hours. The drive was uneventful other than the short ride I had in Utah and the beautiful scenery that surrounded me! I road on a dirt road near The Grand Staircase National Monument for 30 min. The scenery made it hard to drive all I wanted to to do was watch the landscape. I spent the night just past Salt Lake City at a truck stop in the back of the van. Slept well for about 5.5 hours. Arose early and drove the final leg of about 8 hours to Missuola. I arrived at the venue at about 2 pm, stretched out and got ready for pre-ride.

Didn't know much about coarse other than I was told to keep steady hard pace and has lots of climbing. Bottles filled, tires pumped up and I was off. From the start line it was pretty much up hill for 2.5 miles. Below is the map and the elevation chart. The course was hard lots of long climbs, didn't think it would ever end. First section of climb was double track with a slight reprieve and then back to climbing with steep switch backs back to double track steady climb for a short distance and then on to the steepest switch back section. Now its was steady climbs with some descents mixed in. Finally the descent was found here. the descent was much more technical than I anticipated. I took it easy making sure to learn the switch back and washboard sections. Quicker than a blink of a eye it was over. I stopped to look at time and to my surprise it was only 25 minutes. The lap felt like it took 45-60 minutes not 25. I decided to take another lap due to the descent and how unforgiving it was. The second lap was good I was able to find smoother lines on the climbs and faster lines on the descent.