Second Place, Vet Sport Men:Same old course as I remembered it. I'm glad
Tom, Jason and I had a chance to pre-ride it and remember
the tricky points along the way. The one thing I had no trouble
remembering was the brutal uphill finish.
Upon arrival, we finally had a near perfect
day for a mountain bike race. Sunny, not too warm and no major
amounts of bugs. The start went off without a hitch and I
didn't get tangled up with anyone. The race went along as
expected – hammer as hard as you can for as long as you
can and save some energy for the few climbs. I got very lucky
and always seemed to have someone to draft off of on the long
straights. The only downers for the day were losing my water
bottle immediately, passing the water station without noticing
this and then having a Clif Shot explode in my glove when
trying to eat it (I had no problem gripping the handle bar
after that though).
I had had enough by the finish – the
last hill killed me, it was a lot warmer than I expected and
I hadn't had more than a few gulps of water during the whole
race. Damn roadie course - when can we get to Bradbury or
The Pinnacle for some REAL mountain biking. Congrats to all
the CR racers who made the trip and raced or cheered us on.
The team just keeps getting stronger.
Overall, I was happy with my finish except
for finishing slower than Nathan ;-). Next time…
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