2012 US Cup East/SERC #2--Tsali Trails, Bryson City, North Carolina (3/31-4/1/12)

I really like this picture. It's from the overlook at Tsali and requires a LOT of effort just to get to this place on the trail. My dad took it during our pre-ride of the race loop on Saturday.

Anyway, last weekend's race was at Tsali trails in Bryson City, North Carolina. I did really well here last year, surprising everybody (including myself) by placing second in only my second-ever juniors race. This year, I knew I had been working hard and I wanted to win. After the pre-ride, we got ready for an individual time trial on a shorter, 4 mile loop that would be part of the Sport (cat 2) riders course. The ITT is worth up to 5 bonus points for the series, so it could make a big difference in the overall standings at the end of the season and I wanted to get the 5 points.

Well, I didn't quite do it. I slid out around one of the turns, fell down a hill, lost my momentum and some of my focus too, I think. My friend (and biggest competition this season), John Michael, beat me by less than a minute, but it might as well have been 10 minutes. I was so disappointed and mad at myself.

The next morning, we showed up early for the race so that we could get a good parking spot. (The parking lot at Tsali is very small and the sponsors take up most of the space.) The fog was so thick that you could barely see anything, but I thought it would probably all be gone by the start of my race at 11:30, and I was right.

Our class was the next to last to go. I got a quick jump off the line and won the hole shot for the second time, with John Michael right behind me for the second time. It was exciting and I felt really good about how I was climbing up the hills. About half-way up the starting climb, another boy passed both John and me for the lead. It wasn't long though before we passed him right back, and that was the last we saw of him or anybody else from our class for the rest of the race.

John Michael

NOT the guy who held me up. :-)

Unfortunately, I would lose sight of John Michael quicker than I should have too. He attacked on one of the early climbs also, when I was just riding along at a comfortable pace. Instead of chasing him down, like I should have, I figured I'd get him on the downhills or on the next climb. After all, I didn't want to blow myself up at the beginning of the race. What I forgot to take into consideration was lap traffic. I'm usually pretty good at getting around lap traffic, but every now and then I wait too long to pass somebody. John Michael obviously did a much better job of it in this race, because I got held up by a guy riding in the Junior 15-18 class and it took WAY TOO LONG for me to get around him. After watching the raw video footage with my dad on the way home, I had to admit that I could've been more aggressive about getting around him. 

John Michael rode a really good race and finished in first place again and I finished in second place again.

Some really cool things did happen in this race though. First of all, even though I came in second again, my lap time was 12 minutes faster than last year. Also, John Michael and I rode such fast lap times that we both actually would've made the podium or even won several of the other base classes as well. Not too bad for two kids from Florida!

It was actually a pretty good day for some other Florida Junior racers too. Two other Juniors from Florida (and my FirstPlaceRacing.com teammates), Jacob Deen and Dustin Zimmerman, decided to move up to the Juniors 15-18 category for this race. They did really well, finishing in 4th and 5th place. Congrats to Jacob and Dustin!!

 Check out this week's video.