The Skyline Newspaper

Rick Willing and other local mountain bikers volunteer to maintain some South County trails. Photo by Crystal Allbright, Terlingua

Terlingua Bike Race a Great Time...Más o Menos

By Sharon Collyer
Skyline Contributor

"The name Más o Menos? The idea of creating a long distance mountain bike race in the Terlingua area was being tossed around. Could a route be connected that was 100k or even 100 miles long? …Well, más o menos." -Crystal Allbright, Desert Sports, Terlingua

You might fly off a cliff. You could land face first in a prickly pear cactus. Your legs will scream in agony the next day. You'll probably go home beat-up, bruised and exhausted…if you actually make it out alive. But don't let these trivial notions stop you from entering this year's Más o Menos Mountain Bike Endurance Festival, Terlingua's annual gnarly cycling event, where the best of the best endurance mountain bike racers congregate to hurl themselves against the most rigorous terrain and grueling steep hills the Chihuahuan Desert has to offer.

"The race is an endurance event," says race organizer Crystal Allbright of Terlingua's Desert Sports. She stresses the word "endurance." "This is the best climbing in Texas, with fast, swoopy trails." Swoopy? "You know…you go really fast and you swoop around the curves. Just being in the desert is a challenge for mountain bikers, dealing with the elements, and getting your bike around the course twice."

Thousands of mountain bikers and their families, friends, children and pets will take over Terlingua's CASI Chili cook-off site between February 14th through the 16th to talk, eat and breathe mountain biking, and hope to place in the top three of their category. Winners of the 30K, 50K and 100K racing events receive fortunes, fame and the admiration of their peers; losers secure bragging rights and an opportunity to do it all again next year.

Everyone gets to enjoy a rollicking Terlingua-style good time in three whirlwind days of outdoor desert fun.

You don't even need to be a hard-core mountain biking geek to enjoy the races. The three-day cycling festival officially starts on Thursday, February 14th with a variety of guided fun rides for those of us who enjoy our mountain biking with a less competitive edge. Then on Saturday kids between the ages of two and fourteen get their own free cross-country mountain bike races. The Kids Kup is a fantastic way for children to participate in their first racing event and immerse themselves and their parents in the treacherous mountain biking lifestyle their older contemporaries seem to thrive on.

If mountain biking isn't enough to get you to the Más o Menos race, consider the Reggae band, Eleven Fingered Charlie, on Saturday night or the great food prepared by the Starlight Theatre for the event. And, if people-watching is your pastime of choice, it would be hard to find a better locale to check out fit bodies in skin tight Lycra shorts straddling ergonomically-correct bike seats. We are, after all, hormonally-driven college students.

But the highlight of the three-day bike-a-thon is THE race on Saturday, an excruciating fifty kilometer patchwork of single-track and trails that weave through, around, up…up…up…UP and over some of the most intense geologic obstacles in Brewster County. The Tres Cuevas Climb is the most notorious part of the race; cyclists gain 1000 ft. in less than three miles as they crawl up an extremely rocky and unmaintained mountain grade. Competitors in the 100K marathon do the whole shebang twice.

"I've never puked, but I've wanted to," says English instructor and mountain biking aficionado Brad Butler about climbing Tres Cuevas. Butler has competed twice in the 50K and placed eighth last year in his age category. (What category is that, Brad? The 'Old' category?) "And, I'm always passed by the same group of elite women on the climb."

The race isn't just another catchy Terlingua-fest; it's actually a pretty big deal on the national mountain biking circuit. It's the first event of the season in the USA Cycling National Ultra Endurance tests, it's part of the Hill Country Bicycle Works Championship Marathon Series, and it's part of the 2008 Spring Championship Series of the Texas Mountain Biking Racing Association. In other words…

"These are pros and really hard-core people," re-iterates Allbright. But the event seems to have taken a life of its own. "Last year, we had over 400 racers. This year, pre-registration is double compared to last year. This is a gathering of cycling experts. If you enjoy spectator sports, this is definitely a spectator sporting event."

So are the rumors about Lance Armstrong showing up true or not? Allbright chortles mysteriously. "It's possible," she says. "He has raced here before. I think he likes the area. We'll know when we see the whites of his eyes."

The 2008 Mas O Menos Mountain Bike Races are a fantastic excuse for Sul Ross students to take a road trip to Terlingua and become engaged in the cultural phenomenon that is South Brewster County. If you are planning to participate in the races or the fun rides, make sure you take your required bike helmet, and be prepared to camp.

Aim to be as self-sufficient and low-maintenance as possible during your stay down south. Log on to www.desertsportstx.com or call (432) 371-2727 for more information about the races or about mountain biking in the area.

And remember to wave at Lance as he goes flying by.