The fifth leg of the 2008 NUE Series arrived in Coburn, PA for the Wilderness 101. Unlike the past 3 races on the East Coast schedule, we were finally blessed with no prerace thunderstorms, good course conditions and temperatures expected to top out in the upper 80's (although the humidity was up a bit).

Rolling up to the line for Independent Fabrication were Harlan Price, Alex Kopko and Chris Wurster. With both Harlan (overall) and Chris (masters) in a tight race for their respective classes the ingredients were there for some good hard racing. The open division saw a close race from start to finish with a slow puncture derailing Harlan Prices's final straight showdown against Chris Eatough with Harlan bringing it home in third. For the full race report go to - http://cyclingnews.com/mtb/?id=2008/jul08/wilderness101_08

In the master's Scott Root and Chris Wurster crossed paths at the first three rest stations before Scott opened a gap in the technical section on Lower Sassafras Trail and extended it on the descent down Sassafras Trail. The only scare of the race came on Sand Mountain Road while hugging the right side of the climb. I passed within inches of a coiled rattler that gave it's warning before opting to head for the woods rather then striking. The balance of the race was a battle with the demons in my head until aide station 5 when it was a race for home and second in masters.

All of the day's suffering was taken care of with an awesome post race massage from Buck.