Chupacabra 100 Race

Well even though I am on assignment in Oregon I was still able to train enough for the annual Chupacabra 100 Race in Mexico . I flew home on Thursday night and drove down to Mexico Friday morning with the rest of the crew for the race Saturday October 13th. New Mexico and Albuquerque was well represented with myself and 5 more racers going down for the annual race.

Let me tell you this is a race the whole city shows up for it is a mass start 100K race from the soccer stadium in Juarez along the Rio Grande then up in to the mountains South West of town.  Folks line up all along the road from the stadium and the river trail and pretty much the entire course.  This year there were just over 2400 riders that started and just under 1400 official finishers. It started out cool and clear and was predicted to be the hottest day of the week so far. Of course it's going to be hot on race day it would be too much to ask for some clouds oh noooo can’t do that... The race started at 9:00AM (see the attached picture of what that looked like we can be seen in the bottom left corner of the picture) there was a police escort from the stadium to the trail along the river and from there the pace really picked up.  

The first 20 miles along the river the pace is 16-20MPH just to try to stay ahead of the mass of people and out of some of the dust before the climbing started. My self and Rich were able to stay in the top 200 riders staying out of some of the dust and avoid the crashes in the back and made it to the climb in good time. Did I mention it was dusty? The temperature was at about 90 now with no clouds any where. Figures! Now I just settled in on a nice climbing pace for the next 11 miles to the bottom of the King Kong steps. This is the climb over the top of the mountain where the single track basically becomes rock steps and you carry your bike for about a mile before beginning a descent down to the valley. The descent is fast at times with some technical and through rocky stream beds (really rocky like your neighbors gravel front yard) and single track.

 It is pretty fast pace through the single track and 1 dirt road section past a gravel quarry making what else dust! This goes past a small white church in the middle of no where with nothing else for miles where priest are on hand blessing all the riders with holly water as you ride past the front of the church. Once past the sag stop for water and fruit at the church it is 6 miles of rolling twisty up and down single track back to the base of the mountain.

This side of the Mountain is even more of a hike than the front side. It is called asphyxiation hill and for good reason. When you get there all you see is a snake of people with bikes hiking up the mountain in the back of the valley. It is about an 800 foot climb to the top in about 2.3 miles of rocky switch backs carrying your bike.

It was a slow climb with not much passing available since there was just such a line of people. Once at the top I didn't rest so I could get by some of the people before the descent. Now it’s fun!  Here is where I was able to start picking people off. This is a very steep loose rocky descent down switch backs and ledges steps to a dry creek bed out to the bottom. Right up my alley for tough descents.  I must say the people in this race are really great about letting riders pass if they are walking a section that other riders are able to ride. One word to remember PISTA! From the bottom of here it was a fast descent back down a dirt access road back to the river trail and from there 8 miles back to the soccer stadium. All in all it was a great race I was able to move up from 419th last year to 275th out of 2400 this year. Next year gotta c hange up the training and see if I can crack the top 100.  Enjoy the pictures.

Gavin Flury