Dirt Spanker

Global warming sucks. Another hot race with brutal climbs. The Dirt Spanker at Mont du Lac starts at the bottom of the ski run and sends you all the way to the top. Once up top, it's all tight singletrack with some steep uphills and roaring descents. None of it is particularly smooth, with lots of roots and muddy ruts making for some tricky handling.

I was holding back a little on the first climb, and was able to pass most of the field before the singletrack. Second lap I felt okay, and even the third time up the big climb I didn't feel too bad. I was in about 5th, but about 1/4 of the way into the singletrack I started to fade. By the time I got to the downhill, Tom had gone around me. I stayed on his wheel as best I could until the final climb out. He spun out and walked and I caught up to him just as he got back on his bike. If he wasn't on my team I could have maybe pushed it to get around, but even that might not have happened. Ended up 8th out of 39, 16th overall. Not bad, but not great. At least we picked up some team points. Ton just missed Top Ten with a sweet wipeout on the downhill finish.