Firebird 40 XC recap

Last weekend, Eagle, CO, hosted a fantastic and sure to grow festival for all things bike. A host of different races took place over two days, including a Sunday women's only mountain bike race. Eagle's quaint downtown transformed into a bike mecca with expos, demos and trails within sight of the beer garden. Dubbed the Firebird, the men's race featured a who's who of the regional Mountain West scene with Todd Wells, Ben Sonntang, the Kenda/Felt and ClifBar boys making for a super fast start to the 40 mile race.  Following some good form at the Rumble at 18 Road XC in Fruita where Josh took 11th, he was able to find a large second group trailing the leaders but then came unhitched after a few laps to ride solo. The blazing fast efforts on those first few laps took their toll in the end as he faded from the 13th to 18th. Not a tremendous effort overall, but considering the field at the front and 80 others behind, Josh was satisfied to ride with the big boys for a few laps and got some solid training in before The Growler hits later this month.

A bonus post-race shred down and a fun Specialized Enduro demo bike made the hard efforts fade away as we enjoyed a smattering of the local flow trails off the Boneyard trail system. With CDT front and rear suspension the Enduro climbed incredibly well even with the slack head angle, and the descending, well let's just say the ride felt as though you were supermaning down the trail at mach speeds.