Welch Village
It was a pretty muggy morning on race day. That coupled with a nasty intestinal bug made for a pleasant time. I warmed up for about 40 minutes, but couldn't really eat anything solid without fear of getting sick. So, I gulped down an energy gel and lined up for the start. We were doing a prologue and then 2 full laps which would include a new surprise.

This course runs right up a climb from the start, into some singletrack and out into another climb. I made sure I was in the top 10 before the singletrack and held my position up the next climb and into the singletrack up top. We made our way back down the switchbacks and began lap 2. I was beginning to burn out a bit from not eating anything. Still, I held my position and made sure nobody passed me. After the second singletrack section instead of running us right into the next singletrack, they routed us down to the wall climb. It was basically straight up for a few hundred yards. I prerode the course on Saturday with some other guys, and we did this climb thinking it wouldn't be in the Sport race, but we were wrong. I was able to grind it out, passing those who were walking up and entered the next section of singletrack with enough of a gap to recover a bit.

Final lap I began to feel a little better. I tried to maintain a steady pace on the climbs and tried to stay off the brakes in the singletrack. Coming up the wall climb I was able to pass several riders and also hold off Sean (see photo) for the time being. We leapfrogged each other through the next few miles. On the final climb out of the woods I was able to give it a little more gas and passed Sean again. I rode as hard as I could to the final downhill switchbacks, trying to hold him off. He was right behind me going into the downhill, so I went faster than I normally would have, being careful in the corners. I ended up about 20 seconds in front of him, which was good enough for 4th place on the day. Not bad considering I had almost decided not to race at all the way I was feeling beforehand.

Next week is Spirit Mountain, which should be brutal. I think I'm in second place overall now, so hopefully I can have a couple more good finishes and make top 3 at the end of the season.

Photo by skinnyski.com