Slowly

This past week seemed to fly by. I had a great week of training in the wonderful weather we had, not. But the heat definitely help me prepare mentally for Sunburst.  When my family and I arrived Saturday to pre ride the weather wasn't to bad.  The temperature was in the 80's and the humidity wasn't to high. After having a year off from this course, it didn't really seem to change much. The course lay out was basically the same but they added more down and back's through a section of pine trees, now we had to do it 10-11 times instead of 5-6. This course is mostly climbing so I wasn't sure how I'd do against all the top pro racers. On race day the temperature was in the 90's and with very little shade you were always in the sun.  When we arrived at 8am we set up our easy up and waited for the races to begin. At 11:30 my parents went off and I did their bottle hand offs. During this race a lot of racers were dropping out because of all the dust and heat.  This wasn't the best sign knowing that I would have to deal with the same stuff.  When it was time for my the elite race I got ready, warmed up and headed to the line.  Don starts his call ups and to my surprise I got one, which is number two for the year. Now sitting 3rd row, behind Tim Racette, I was feeling good.  Don sends us off and I'm sitting mid pack.  The pace wasn't unbearable so I could move up pretty easily.  We charged through the 1/2  mile prologue loop and created a dust storm.  The dust was so thick I had troubles breathing and seeing the trail. The picture below captured by Gary Smits shows this dust. 

After the prologue loop it was time to climb. We climbed and climbed then on the first decent along a corn field, Tim Racette decided to ride through the tall bushes and hooked something on a log.  In slow mo I see Tim's bike fly up and he goes right over the bars. I got around with ease and started picking people off 1 by 1.  Each lap I got father and farther up until lap 4 when I caught Ron Stawicki.  I got around him and thought I could drop him, he was riding stronger than I thought.  Ron was floating 15-20 seconds behind me and kept getting stronger as the lap progressed. I managed to keep a good gap on him and kept pushing only hoping I had the legs to catch Chad Sova.  The legs pulled through and on lap 5 I finally managed to catch him.  I got a couple of lapped riders in between us, before one little section of single track, and that was enough to allow me to get a gap and ride in for 8th overall. After another great finish things are slowly starting to come along.  With WORS #7 in the books there is a couple of weeks free from WORS but the racing continues in CO.  With a couple of free days before I leave, I hope to spend some time with my sick grandfather and make the best out of the time he has left.   

Another CycleOps athlete and Wheel and Sprocket/Vision rider on the podium