On the Podium!!

Cathy has really made short work of moving up through the Expert field this year. On only her 5th race as an elite she had broken into the top 10 and this past weekend was standing on the podium with a 6th overall and 3rd in her age!! The race really played into her favor, lots of climbing and not overly technical single track. She started out sitting mid pack for the first climb and first decent. Then as early as the second climb on the first lap she started making her moves. On the second lap she hooked up with a comp rider and paced off him for the rest of the race. I seen her a few times and was getting reports from the sidelines that she was having a really good race. Finally about 1 mile from the finish I passed her and she was riding strong. Then just as she was finishing two Elite riders came into a corner way to hot and tangled handle bars. They went down HARD and Cathy had to do everything she could to keep from getting tangled up in it. She was really happy with her finish and really felt like she was racing instead of just surviving.

My weekend was a little longer. I did the full stage race which started out at 11 on Saturday. The days before the race were really wet and Saturday morning was about 120% humidity. We literally couldn't see more than 100 ft in front of us as we rode up to the start line. Everyone was second guessing their tire choice, some were running semi-slicks, some had skinny mud tires, and I was running a wide dry tire. Turned out handling would trump tire choice. The trails were just grease so if you were ok with riding forward/sideways/backwards, you would do ok. I caught my minute man about 3/4 way through and really felt like I had a good run. When it all shook out I came out 17 seconds off the win! It was a tough 20 minute flat out sprint so my legs were pretty tired. We ran into town to get some lunch and just chill out before the Short track that afternoon. I ran my 9.8 with the rigid fork set up with a 42 tooth gear up front. We took off and I moved to the front. I was pushing but felt good and on the second lap had opened up a gap on the field. Then I dropped my chain, I got it on as the main field was going by. Then again it dropped. Now I was chasing. Just as I caught back on it dropped again and then one last time just for a nice even 4 times!! I pulled in a couple stragglers but was way off the pace I was hoping for. The final race in the Stage was the XC main event. The course had really dried out by Sunday and went from greasy slop to sticky peanut butter. Carlos and I had a good race going until he crashed really hard on the second to last lap. I was definitely feeling the first two events as I climbed the hill for the last time. As we came in for the finish my rear tire washed out in huge mud hole sending me over the bars. I quickly jumped up and seen another Expert rider coming hard. I jumped on the bike and we bumped elbows just hardly holding him off through the finish.
Sorry for the sparatic report Mondays are tough enough and I don't think this one is going to go any better!
On a course that most people love to hate both Cathy and I walked away really enjoying the weekend. I managed to pull off 4 in the Stage race and broke even on the weekend and Cathy walked away with her first Expert medal.