Going into the race I had no idea what to expect.   I borrowed a bike and picked it up Friday evening and was able to get in about an hours ride.  Showed up Saturday morning sort of ready for the race and still not sure how the bike would fit or handle.  The duo teams started first then the solo riders followed a couple minutes later.  As the race started I soon found myself riding at the front with Dan Jansen from the Farm Team.  The course was pretty cool with the typical route around the outside of the orchards (or least where the orchards use to be), but then there was a new section added.  It was a really nice wooded trail with lots of little challenging climbs and some twisty turns.  Lapped traffic was constantly an issue, but no major problems, just lots of “passing on your left”.  On the third lap Dan and I asked what the time was and to our surprise they said 38 minutes.  We were both in agreement that it felt like much longer and I started to settle in for a very long race.  We had already separated ourselves from the rest of the solo riders, so it was going to be just the two of us the rest of the day.  It was pretty uneventful the second hour as Dan is not much for conversation while he is racing.  I had a few attempts at levity, but Dan returned all my attempts with stern silence.  As the 2.5 hour cutoff was approaching I briefly thought about my strategy.  I decided it would be best to just try to hold on to Dan’s wheel and hope that he would let me stick around to the final straight.  I was pretty confidant I could carry a lot more speed than him on this long flat area.  Well, Dan is a lot smarter than that and on the second to last lap he put in a good effort going through the wooded section.  I had no answer for his speed through there and he quietly rode away from me.  We ended up doing 13 laps in just over 2:30.  We lapped all the other solo riders and even beat all of the teams.  I don’t think I am sold on a snow bike, but this race was definitely fun and I would love to do it again.  The Farm Team does a great job putting on races and i have to give a big thanks to Scott Chambers for letting me use his bike.