Sunday in Fruita brought the cross country race.
The night before Dale's Pale Ale and Over The Edge (this place is one of those ultra cool local bike shops that plays a HUGE role in the local riding scene) threw a sweet party for the racers. Lots of chillin, lots of complementary beer (thanks Dale!), and all the people who weren't so caught up in their training program to not have beer...or at least come hang out.
Anyways, props to the Mountain States folks for putting together another sweet course. This time, to save the singletrack, they started the race on some fairly flat Jeep road. I thought this part was going to be boring, maybe even demoralizing, but... we were hauling the mail out of the start, and for the first time, I was keeping up, NO PROBLEM. Stoke!
That's my rear in the Spike kit. Note the signature hair.
Then we started to go uphill. Well, I didn't catch anyone else after this point, but at least I didn't lose my position. And I didn't have time to feel worried about it, because all of a sudden, I was on the Western Rim. Let me repeat that: We raced the Western Rim. Sick! It was like ripping on Porcupine Rim. Heaven.
Well, all good things must come to an end, and the climb out involved some two track. Thankfully the race ended on (I think) Trail Two, a rolling hills-singletrack-awesome trail. Again, not a great result for me (15th), but the trails were so good, I didn't mind.
Overall, Kelli Emmett and Ross Schnell showed us how it was done, followed closely by Katie Compton and Brian Fuentes. Also props to my friend Lindsey Bishop, who took an astounding eighth place in her first pro race, and to Meghan Woolley, who won her category, with her wrist broken from pre-riding. Wow.
2 comments:
Good to see you starting up the race season. I'll look forward to more reports. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Lianna! Can't wait to do more racing together this year!
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