This years Nationals started off with a bang. Howard Grotts destroyed the D1 field and lapped most of the D1 and D2 field. The D2 race started at 9:10 am. Since Eric was out with an injury that he received after a practice run of the dual slalom course, I was the first Red Hawk to be called up and was in the second row right behind UWP rider Mike. At 9:10 the gun went off, I clipped into my eggbeaters and took off. About 100ft later we started the ascent. I was still sitting in the top group until the first 2 big kickers when the highlanders took off. The group I was in was clipping along at a great pace, when single speeder Marc Thorsen of Ripon flew by Casey and I. After about 2 miles or 20ish minutes up, we hit a really technical rocky single track section. I could until the last couple feet then had to dismount. Casey ran by me and was 2 people ahead of me going down the decent. He snuck by those 2 riders and flew down the hill.
After 10ish minutes of descending we came through the start finish shoot and started to climb again. I caught Casey and Marc then try to hold a steady pace. Casey and I kept pretty close for most of the race. On lap 3 about half way up the hill Howard Grotts flew by me at about 13 MPH, to put it into perspective I was going about 6-7 MPH. We kept climbing when I hit the single track and Casey closed the gap between us. We flew down the hill, came through the start shout and I almost got taken out by D1 riders who were finishing because they got lapped.
I started the last lap and knew it was going to be tough because after the downhill my legs felt like bricks since they were being flexed all the way down the hill and had no time to relax. So when we hit the first climbs my legs said stop, no more, but I kept saying "Shut up legs" -Jens Voigt. Another thing that help this pain go away was I kept thinking of Eric. Since he couldn't race I was racing for him and this gave me the extra motivation to go deeper into the pain cave until the point of no return. With this new motivation, energy etc... I caught a couple people and saw 2 others just ahead. I caught them right as we started the downhill and couldn't get around. Shortly later I spotted 3 more people. Mike from UWP was one of the people I caught but was faster than Karl who was right in front of me so Mike got a gap on the downhill. I knew it was going to come down to the last open section right before the finish. So once we hit the open I tried to jump but the Karl also jumper and the gaps stayed the same and we rolled through the finish 12th, 13th and me 14th.
The short track was Saturday at 10am. The course was the same start straight as the XC race. You sprinted 100ft then you turned up the mountain then veered left and continued to slowly climb when about half way up it kicked and the legs started to burn like a forest fire. At the top you turned right and descended into some lose and dusty single track then after 2.5 minutes we were back onto the start straight. Lap after lap I moved up only hoping I wouldn't get caught by the leader. Finally on the 3rd last lap I noticed the leader getting closer but they didn't pull me I pushed it thinking I was getting pulled on the next lap. To my surprise I didn't and kept going. Then with 2 to go I jumped and gained 3 spots. I started my last lap and realized I went to early and burned my last matches. I gave it all I had but those 3 people slowly rolled past and I finished on the lead lap in 22nd place. After 2 solid days of racing I'm beat and want to sleep but have to much fun coming tonight after the awards banquet. Hopefully the banquet will be just as fun as the WORS banquet. Kinda wish I could be there to get my award and see my WORS family again before the long winter.
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