2nd annual Bitter

But that took all day. I figured that if I could ride from Red Barn, do the Como Loop, traverse over to the Coyote Coolie Loop, and then get back to the barn in 3 hours that would be impressive.  ~2011 Bitter

Fast forward to 2012 and lining up at the starting line for the 2012 version of The Bitter I felt even more confident I could do last years loop in under 3 hours.  And just like last year I had some people give me the raised eyebrow upon my mentioning this idea.

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This year I was aboard my Salsa El Mariachi Ti and earlier that morning Chad tuned the fork for more travel.  I tore out of Red Barn ready to crush it. To my surprise I was able to ride everything that had given me trouble in the past.  Specially near the bridge over the whitewater at the far West side of the lake. I rode down and then up the other side without any pause.  Last year I fell off the downhill switchback and then had to run up the other side after spinning out.  Not this time.  And … I even had time to take some photos too.

In the end I made it back to the barn in 3:26 which on the surface seems slower then last year.  Not so!  In fact I did a extra loop which probably took me well over 25 minutes.  So the under three hours has not been achieved but I did set a new distance record.  Now to to that in under 3 hours … piece of cake.