Last weekend was my first big race in California since I got crashed out at Sea Otter last year and broke my wrist, and I was looking forward to racing Bonelli. My dad and I stayed at a team house with some of the guys and Dario, our coach. It was nice to be able to get to know my teammates better and spend some time goofing off.
After pre-riding the course I couldn't wait to get to the
starting line and race. I thought the course was a good mix of climbing
and somewhat technical descents, with plenty of flat sections that made it
easy to get a quick drink. At this event I competed in the Super-D 18 and under open
class and the XC Cat 2 14 and under class. The Super-D was on Saturday
and the XC was on Sunday, so I really wasn't all that worried about
wearing myself out.
For Saturday's race, I warmed up by riding the first
section of the Super-D course three times to dial in this hard
off-camber right turn. Once I lined up I knew I was ready for the hard
effort. Off the start I was going so hard that I was sliding out on most of
the corners. But once I got to the top of the descent that led to the
off-camber turn, I started gaining control over my bike and I just
drilled it through the rest of the course. In the end I finished with a
time of exactly 7 minutes, which put me in second place, missing first by
only 8 seconds. I thought that was a great way to start the weekend and
looked forward to my race the next morning. |
| Me cooling off during staging with my KewlFit vest. |
On Sunday, I got over to the course feeling really exited.
I couldn't wait to get on that starting line. I threw on my skinsuit
and KewlFit vest and started my warm-up. After only warming up for 20
minutes I realized that they had just started staging and most of the
kids were already up there, so I rode as fast as I could to get over to
those guys. When I first got up I was only able to get on the second row
but after some aggressive moves I made it to the middle of the front
row right where I wanted to be. All of the Cat 2 juniors were going to
go off together. So I had to start with both my age group and the 15-18
year old guys. After waiting for the other classes to go off I finally
made it to the starting line that I waited so long to see.
Once I heard the one minute to go I started my Garmin and
waited for the sound of that whistle my ears were longing to hear. Once I
heard it, I was off and there was no stopping me. I got the hole shot,
making my way down the road to the fist climb. Right when I got to the
top, a 15-16 kid attacked and just got around me going into the downhill.
But once he got to the bottom and started pedaling, his chain popped
off and I never saw him again. So from then on I just drilled it through
the lap traffic and hammered the entire race. As soon as I finished, I
jumped off the bike and sat down, coughing up all the dust I had breathed
in.
At this race I finished 1st place in my class and also beat
all of the 15-18 year old kids. Thanks to Josh Snead for making my bike
work perfectly and Dario Fredrick for the support. I was really
pleased with my performance and can't wait to race at Fontana this coming weekend!
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