7 am and blessed with overcast skies and cooler than average temperatures. Over 200 racers lined up for the 2004 Wilderness 101 made possible by Chris Scott and Shenandoah Mountain Touring. The course covers the distance with a combination of fire roads, double track, single track, gnarly rocky descents, snake filled tunnels, old railroad beds, footbridges and dam crossing trestles.

This course boasts nearly 11,800 feet of climbing over 50 miles. Most of the significant climbing was on fire road or overgrown double track. The most technical descent is Croyle Run Trail, which had changed significantly with all the rain this summer. Many folks flew over the handlebars in perfect “10” endos and if you forgot to let out a bit of air the rocks were not very forgiving.

Chris Eatough of Trek/VW East Coast Factory riding at his “24 hour pace” won the first of two races for the weekend with a 7 hour and 10 minute time. On Sunday he won the second race in the Michaux series “Curse of Dark Hollow” Chris seems to just float over the trails. By the time he reached Aid Station 5 it looked like Chris had already showered, cleaned his bike and taken a 2 hour nap. He would float in and out of the aid stations and like most racers he was very thankful to the countless volunteers who certainly make this race a success. Skip Brown of 7 Cycles had a great race with a time of 7:40, over 4 minutes ahead of third place Bernie Grysen and 12 minutes ahead of fourth place finisher Garth Prosser. Mark Hendershot of Santa Cruz Syndicate finished out the podium in 5th place with a time of 8:02.

Single Speeds Rock and Rule.

Danny Brennan of Bicycle Depot was the first Single Speeder with a time of 8:05 and came in 6th overall. He was followed closely by Les Leach of Yards Brewing 8:14 who also rounded out the top 10 overall. Third place was taken by Mark Elsasser (aka Elk) of Spot Brand. Greg Montello of ECV and Travis Turner of Bicycle Depot rounded out the podium in 4th and 5th place respectively.

Independent Fabrication was the single speed team of the day. Tiffany Mann was not only the first single speed woman but she was the dominate woman of the day with an awesome overall winning time of 9:23 which put her in 49th place overall and more than 12 minutes ahead of her nearest competitor. Lauri Webber and Carol Clemens also from Independent Fabrication completed the single speed women podium in second and third place respectively.

Tiffany Mann of Massachusetts dominated the woman’s race on her single speed racing for Independent Fabrication. Sue George of Team Lucky Green followed her. Kristen Dieffenbach riding for Western Maryland Wheelman took third place. Lauri Webber also riding a single speed for Independent Fabrication was the 4th place woman and Gina Guerrera finished the day in 5th place.