Always fun to race the former NORBA national course. We prerode on Saturday in a monsoonal downpour, and most of the course was unridable. It rained more Saturday night, so I feared the worst for Sunday. The course was actually in pretty good shape, with some muddy spots where you had to run up.
It was a mass start of 98 riders that starts up a climb. I didn't want to go too hard on the prologue lap, but I didn't want to get stuck in any traffic jams either. So I found a good tempo and hit the singletrack about 10 back. I passed a few people who went too hard and by the first big climb on lap 1 I was doing okay. Some of the singletrack was still greasy, so the first lap was all about trying to find the best lines through, and knowing when to get off and run. I misjudged a couple of sections which cost me a bit. Then came "the Wall". This is a super steep climb straight up the ski run. I couldn't find a dry line through it so I had to run the middle section. I was able to recover a bit in the singletrack and was settling into a good pace, feeling good on a technical climb when my front wheel suddenly went sideways and I went down. No injuries or mechanicals, but it cost valuable time.
As I rolled through for Lap 2 I was in 14th overall, with no idea where I was in my age group. I was really suffering on the first big climb, but managed to pass a couple of guys. Had to walk part of the Wall again, but was able to ramp it up after that. I got passed coming out of the singletrack and played leapfrog with another guy for the last half of the lap. First guy held me off, but I was able to pull away from the other guy on the last climb and passed a singlespeeder on the downhill switchbacks. 5th place in my age group, 13th out of 98 overall. Next week, Spirit Mountain.
Photo from Skinnyski.com (thanks!)
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