This article is from the excellent Dirtworld.com To read more like this go to: http://www.dirtworld.com Article written by Elden Nelson

Final Push 
Amazingly, I made it to the last aid station, meaning I had just eight more miles of climbing to go, followed by five miles of fast downhill coasting to the finish line. I rode with another guy for a big chunk of this section, both of us agreeing that if we survived this, neither of us would ever ride another bike again. 
As I turned onto the final 3-mile section of singletrack, a blast of wind hit me, bringing me to a dead stop before I downshifted and managed to s-l-o-w-l-y start turning the cranks again. Up there above the treeline, exposed and cold with the mother of all headwinds, I checked my speedometer: 3mph. That, my friends, is not fast. 
It was fast enough, though, that I managed to pass a couple of other guys and--finally--struggle to the top of the Brian Head Peak. That's mile 95, and it's all downhill to the finish line. I was so happy I started to cry. Yes, I'm a man and I started to cry. Wanna make something of it? 
Thinking back, I realize how clever those wily Team Big Bear guys are in organizing the course the way they did. Make a race incredibly punishing, but make the final few minutes of it a cinch, so you have a little while to recover and roll across the line happy. Coasting at 45mph, I forgot all the nasty things I had to say about the promoters and instead thought about the fact that I had successfully ridden a race an order of magnitude harder than anything I had ever done before. So after I rolled across the finish line and Dave of Team Big Bear popped the cork on a champagne bottle for me (as he did for each finisher) and gave me a finisher's jersey, I sat down in the gravel and said, "You bastards. That's one hell of a race." In fact, Team Big Bear has created a course that makes the Leadville 100 look like a sissy ride.