What I did Today: Went to my 3 classes
Energy: Tired but extremely happy
Mud has always been something that has been very fun to ride in just because of its spattering qualities. At Lees Mcrae I experienced a totally different mud. Don't get me wrong, it was an absolute BLAST! but wow. Every one has been saying this is one of the most technical courses already and when St. Marie hoped it would rain so we would really have fun, I was worried. They were right. We pre-rode the course when it was dry and wow, it was so much fun. There was a very large rock garden and several "euro-drops" (steep inclines that last 3-4 feet that drop to flat and even one that was like 10 feet long) and too many roots to count. It was so so so much fun. The course was scary and hard but the flow it had and the adventure involved in just surviving was so awesome.
Now that I think back, we didn't even know what technical was at that point, that night it start pouring. All in all we started in a cold drizzle and that slowly turned into a downpour. Well back home, dirt plus water= tacky, nice dirt. Back east dirt plus water equals MUD. It was amazing, it was harder than riding in snow. I hit so many trees I can't even count! It turned into a slop fest of all time. I had a really great start putting me into the top ten or so and I held that position throughout the entire race. I felt really great climbing in the mud that allowed for almost no traction and the descents were way too much fun to even contain myself. Put it this way, no one could tell what jersey someone was wearing, we all wore brown. I guess an excellent souvenir from Lees Mcrae. At one point I had to get an extra water bottle just to spray off my drive train so that my bike would keep rolling! Well I ended up in the top ten and the second on our team. It was a really great race for me and I realized the only way to be good in mud is to have too much fun in it. At one point I tried to get around a guy but his wheel was in the trail, promptly taking me down, but usually one goes down and stops, no I slid about 15 feet completely out of control. It was awesome.
Then the short track. We were all hoping this would stay dry as a majority of it was in the grass. Our wish was somewhat granted. It was definitely pretty wet but nothing we couldn't handle. The nastiest features were a literal mud pit, which thankfully had a sneak line that I found early on in the race, and a creek crossing. I had another really good start. It put me in great position to pick people off. And throughout the race I was able to keep it up. This time I was actually able to finish one lap down which was so awesome as last time I raced three laps and that was it. I was really psyched to get that goal alone and the position it put me in was awesome. I felt really solid on descending and my power is still there. I think I need to do some climbing in Pisgah though.
Well this upcoming week is our biggest fundraising event of the year, the Pisgah mtb. stage race. In return for providing workers, our team gets $5,000. So for the next few days I will be doing 3+ hour rides on the most amazing trails to mark the course! It should be a blast and an easy way to finally get some more pictures. I do have some from a ride in Sycamore cove last week.
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| A really awesome skinny! |
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| Sycamore Cove! |
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