Race Anecdotes: Mountain bike racing for beginners

Mountain bike racing for beginners is intimidating. I’ve only raced my mountain bike five times and any time I go to a new race, I’m constantly harassing my teammates for help and directions. Luckily, I have awesome teammates who are always willing to help. I signed up for the Winter Park “Point-to-Point” race after one of my teammates posted a BOGO coupon. I’ve always been turned off by the registration fees for mountain biking. Having to only pay $25 for a 17-mile mountain bike race, visiting Winter Park, and seeing my mountain bike friends sounded like a pretty damn good deal.

Here are some mountain bike racing tips for beginners:

Signage

I wasn’t sure where to park once I reached the resort. I continued driving until I saw several cars and then saw mountain bikers. The lack of signs for the mountain bike race had me wandering around aimlessly, asking folks where to pick up our bibs. The website said, “At the base of Winter Park Ski Resort.” There were a number of bases as I walked up and down flights of stairs, around gondolas and chair lifts, and finally seeing bike racers walking in and out of a building.

I picked up my bib and then asked where the start of the race was. Again, no signs. I kept telling Chris that as a beginner, this would turn me off had it not been for…