BaseCamp athlete Brendan John shared his experience at the 2025 Huffmaster Mini in Maxwell, California.
Last weekend did first event of the year in norcal, the mini huffmaster hopper. Nice to meet all the BasecCmp people out there. Did the 54 miles over 3k of climbing (mostly 1 very long climb) 50% gravel. Training has gone well but went to Florida for vacation for 8 days with minimal to no riding, weight gain, and got home the night before. Poor sleep and felt absolutely awful warming up -- Garmin score of -20. 😅 Group of 100 started extremely slow for first 40 mins (like avg 150w) but got spicy once climbing started. 20 mins main climb felt terrible but made it up following another BaseCamper and just hoped things would get better. Then joined a small group and chased down 4-7 place. After another water stop/climb, chased down group with only 2 of us. Ultimately won a sprint of 4 for 5th place and 1st AG. Long course is much more competitive than this race, but we had an Unbound winner do this mini race last year, so still racy and fun. Biggest takeaway is don't psych yourself warming up (RPE 10 for minimal watts Garmin score popping up), and ultimately keep pedaling even if normal power is not there bc races are not won by power alone. Thanks BaseCamp.
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