Ouachita Challenge
Sunday April 7th was a mild overcast day in Oden, AR. Two hundred fifty men and women from 16 states toed the line to give their best performances in a MTB race through the Ouachita (WOSH-i-taw) National Forest. It’s a demanding course, consisting of 2 major trail systems, the Ouachita and the Womble. The race is 60 miles in length, with over 6250 vertical feet of climbing.
See the start of the race here:
IMG_0670.mov
KCBC team members Dan Schaeffer and Brian Luce where among the field at the starting line. Mark Horn was there too, providing much needed support and encouragement. Our goal was to finish the race in less than 7 hours (yeah, 7 hours). Our plan was to work together and take on whatever the trail had in store for us.
We hit the Ouachita trail first and experienced some great climbing opportunities. The Ouachita trail has a few attributes you just don’t find in KC. Most notably, Blowout Mountain. Blowout features 3-mile climbs, 8-18% grades, and rock gardens that go roughly….. forever. We cleared the mountain and the Ouachita trail with only 1 minor mechanical issue, and spent around 3.5 hours making our way through it.
The second half of the race is on the Womble trail. The Womble is recognized as one of the Epic MTB trails in the United States. It’s about 25 miles of fast, flowing single track that is just plain FUN. Dan Schaeffer rode the Womble like he had been shot from a cannon. I was behind Dan for most of this section, heart beating fast, legs and back hurting. The only sounds I heard came from up ahead of me, I’m pretty sure it was the faint sound of laughter coming from Dan. It was fun watching him rip through an Epic trail in style.
We finished the race in 6 hours and 54 minutes, just under our goal. The experience overall is hard to describe, it was scary at times, humbling, and exhilarating. While it was really fun to finish the event and hit our goal, my favorite thing about this race was spending the day riding my bike with a teammate and friend. There is no doubt KCBC Racing will be at this event in the future.
If you'd like to join us for the event next year, get in touch with us.
racing@kcmbc.org