Hey all! So, the last two weekends have gone really well for
me.
Last weekend I raced my first Crit of the season, the BP
Winter Crit. I was super stoked to race this race, it is my home course and I
love Crits. The adrenaline, speed, tactics. They’re just super fun. And I was
also excited to kick off the road race season, since I hope to upgrade to E4 as
soon as possible. Over the last year I have begun to enjoy road racing more and
more, and I want to fit in some fun/epic races along with my Cross Country and
hopefully Enduro racing.
The BP Crit course is a very short and simple D shape, with the
start finish in the middle of the straight away. There are only two turns, but
there was a wreck in at least one in each of my previous races at this venue.
In the E5 race, I tried to do as little work as possible,
and stay in the pack until the end. A few times, though, I had to reel some
strong competitors back in. I came into the last few laps in great position, up
in the front few guys. On the last lap, a racer jumped and got a big enough gap
that I didn’t think I could reel him in, so I sat in 2nd in the pack until the
final turn, and then sprinted like crazy. I have been working on my sprinting
ability and tactics with some of my Victory Velo teammates (huge thanks to them
J),
and my work paid off. I won the field sprint and took 2
nd overall. I
was beyond stoked. It was a great way to open my road racing season.
Then, this weekend, I raced TBF MTB #3. This race, they
added 2 more miles onto each lap. That makes for a total of 32 miles for the
Expert racers.
Again, the High School Experts spent the 1
st lap
making our way around the entire age group expert field that started one minute
ahead of us. I caught and passed all but 6 of them. After the start, I soon
started working with a friend of mine, Alec Crowfoot. Another one of my
competitors got a gap on us after the first lap, getting away by sneaking
around some traffic. Alec and I worked great together, taking turns pulling to
try to real the guy in 1
st back in. We kept a pretty hot pace going,
and in the first part of the last lap Alec blew up. I found out after the race
that he wasn’t eating enough, and bonked hard. I dropped him right away after
that, his speed drastically reduced. Then I was hammering away in second, time trial
to the finish.
I finished 2
nd in high school expert, and 7
th
overall, with a time of 2:03. I was 5:10
off the winning pro time of the day. I was pretty happy with my result, and it
always feels amazing to get up on that podium.
And that is the tale of the two weekends and the two Second
places.
Next week is the beginning of NorCal, with the first Northern
Conference race. I super excited and nervous to start my last season of NorCal
high school mountain bike racing.
Thanks for reading. Like, share, comment, do those things
you do. I appreciate it.
I’ll keep you posted.
In the E5 race, I tried to do as little work as possible,
and stay in the pack until the end. A few times, though, I had to reel some
strong competitors back in. I came into the last few laps in great position, up
in the front few guys. On the last lap, a racer jumped and got a big enough gap
that I didn’t think I could reel him in, so I sat in 2nd in the pack until the
final turn, and then sprinted like crazy. I have been working on my sprinting
ability and tactics with some of my Victory Velo teammates (huge thanks to themJ),
and my work paid off. I won the field sprint and took 2nd overall. I
was beyond stoked. It was a great way to open my road racing season.
