Park City Point-to-Point

If you're truly looking for a real mountain bike race.

I know better than to even enter this.

http://thepcpp.com/race/

 

I looked at this last year, but missed the registration.....apparently it sells out fast.

All those singletrack miles without riding the same trail 2x. Only thing that worries me is it is at elevation.

 

204 feet per mile for 76 miles...

 

I'd really like to get up there and ride some of this. Just not as a race.

 

Yeah...and way up there where there's no air in that air.

 

Plenty of air, just not enough pressure to let you breathe it.

Looks like fun - except for the race part.

 

Too big for my blood!

 

+1 to that. I'd need to do it at my own pace which means I couldn't do it within their cutoff times, even if I could stomach the race fee. Which I can't. It's much more fun taking on challenges IMO when you do them on your own, no support.

 

True....but sometimes the challenge is to finish within a shorter time window than if you just went out and did it on your own.

I've heard it from people for years in regards to Vision Quest.....lots of riders say they can do the miles/elevation....but they say not within the time windows wouldn't be possible.

Think about your AZ ride over the weekend. How much more the challenge would have been if they told you that you had to finish in 12:00.

I am not a racer by any means. I am not fast. But racing against the clock sometimes has it's appeal.

 

This looks like a super fun ride!

 

Haha, I am one of those who could do the miles/elevation of VQ but not within the time cutoffs. Also too much fire road for my liking.

No doubt adding a cutoff time to a route makes an event more challenging. It is one more fixed constraint that you have to deal with on top of all the other challenges.

But you don't need a cutoff time to race against the clock, and I'm not convinced adding a cutoff time makes for a better race, especially for longer events beyond 50 miles. Cutoff times really only exist so the organizers don't have to wait around all day (and night) for stragglers. If you are someone like me who would be nearer the back of the pack then all it takes is a little adversity like some cramps or a mechanical and your race is over because of that cutoff. You get no opportunity to persevere and overcome to finish, which for me is why I like endurance events. I will never win them but that doesn't mean I won't finish them. Had the AZ ride been a race I would have done it different for sure - no beers or stopping for a sandwich, for example. And I would have pushed my pace a bit harder. But putting in a cutoff that I'm probably not going to meet means I'm not going to drop $150 or $200 to find out if I can do it. I can go challenge the course on my own and ride all night if that's what it takes.

 

The 2019 signup date is approaching.......2/13/19!

It is expensive. It is in elevation, and it sells out fast.
Is more better?

 

Often....but it's not within my physical universe.