Mellow Johnny's Classic MTB Race at Juan Pelota Ranch

Lance Armstrong and Mellow Johnny's hosted the first ever mountain bike race at Lance's Juan Pelota Ranch near Dripping Springs, Texas (just outside of Austin).

I wasn't able to do the XC race because the 700 spots were filled before I knew about it. So instead I volunteered to help out and got to pre-ride the course. Doing the pre-ride was probably best since I didn't get my race bike to Texas in time. I ended up riding my new AR bike that had a different shifting system than I'm used to and I had to borrow platform pedals and wear tennis shoes!

The shifting and the platforms ended up being a pretty big deal since the abundance of rain caused the course to be pretty slick and tricky. The course itself was quite different from what I'm used to in California. It was a 9 mile trail that was 95% singletrack with I'm guessing about 800 feet of elevation gain. It was technical in that there were many boulders and rocks to manuever over and through but there were no significant downhills or ups.

I thought it was a very fun ride and I would love to do that course as a 24 hour race! What do you think Lance?