10/26 Bubba #4 Bella Fontaine, Masters 50+, 2cd.

 First CX race of the year for me, with virtually no prep, no anxiety and no expectations. Feels good, except it gives me the excuse to get into Holiday mode (whiskey)  a little sooner than I should if trying to be an athlete, which has always been hard for me to balance.

 After buying a CX bike in November 2021, the goal was to win a masters jersey and accomplishing that last year combined with getting back into mtb racing, especially with my two priority races in the fall, has made this CX season less than planned. Regardless, I love CX and it brings back floods of memories of good times with the old Mesa crew, meeting my wife and spending a lot of time at McGurks on Sundays after racing. Best memories. To be honest, I watch follow and watch CX more than any other discipline and love the week in week out racing. Convenient and low impact racing.  

This was the first 50+ race I have entered, which is extremely weird from a milestone perspective, but I really enjoy racing in the morning and having some family time in the afternoon, so old fucks it is. I thought I might cat down to the 40 plus, but then realized the added challenge of starting a little behind the SS and 40 plus and going for the overall would be fun.  

It rained a lot Saturday night with rain in the forecast on race day and I  was pretty stoked to see a good field of 40's and 50's, including some fast guys, mainly Dust, Dr. Mark, Hartzel and Paul Carter from out of town, among others. The course turned out to be incredibly dry, slightly tacky and rough, which didn't change until it started to rain the last few laps. 

We took off about 45 seconds behind the SS and 40 plus, I would guess. I fucking charged. No real game plan other than slicing and dicing to the front, and by the second lap I had caught everyone but Dust, Ian and Laberta, who got a great start! Not long after I caught Ian, and was basically riding like it was a two lap race, but didn't really care. I could never close down on Anthony and on the 3rd lap my left quad/IT starting locking up (I think it's the warmup and q factor, ordered some extenders) and got caught by Ian and Paul. I think I stayed with them for a lap and then started getting gapped. 

By mid race I was closing back in on Ian, maintaining to Anthony and going a little faster each lap, less chaotic, more steady power. I started to feel better and was close to catching Ian on the last lap, but he sensed it and I made a mistake in the pines and couldn't close it down. Paul came very close to catching Anthony, which was super impressive, and I finished 10 seconds or so back from Ian. 

All gas, all power, no tech. Was a good race. If I could save a few matches earlier in the race and get my IT straightened out things will improve. Super stoked to be back out there. 2cd in the 50 plus, 4th overall. 

10/18 B.T. Epic, Pro 6th OA.

 Long time listener, first time caller. 

I think this race started in 2008 but I was super committed to racing CX that year, and wasn't a huge fan of the format. I didn't do it the next two years either and then stopped racing. I don't think it was long after that the race became the premier regional MTB Epic and assume that when the Burnin' burnt out, it got even bigger. After I got back on the mtb last year it still wasn't on my radar until the fall when everyone at the One Eyed dog was talking about it, but still, I started this season with plans of XC racing and it wasn't until I dipped my toes back into endurance racing and put the Burnin' on the calendar that I decided to give it a go. True to form, I went totally OCD on the planning and got in some good training rides with Dan, Terry and solo. Riding with Dan and Terry one thing was clear- there would be a lot of 3-5 minute efforts, which was probably my biggest weakness. I was doing almost all endurance training for the Burnin', with the intensity coming on the MTB rides, but nothing too specific. After the Burnin' I had 9 days off the bike and had a few big weeks of volume, but kept the intensity relatively low and not very specific. TBH, that was probably the biggest limiter I had during the race, but still think the endurance volume outweighed the V02 efforts. I'm saying this because I don't want to forget it next year.

The long range weather forecast was calling for a continuation of the heat and dry weather, then a little cooler with a chance of rain, and finally strong storms with possible hail, lightning, tornadoes and 1-2" of rain. My biggest fear was them cancelling or rescheduling the race, the fact it wasn't it still crazy to me, but I'm happy it wasn't

I didn't really care about an age group win so I opted for the Pro Class to get away from the masses, which turned out to be a good strategy. We had the 2024 Elite XCM rider in attendance, the majority of fast regional guys/kids  and a good number of out of towners. 

I was expecting the attacks on the climbs to be far more chaotic, but I stayed with the main group and wasn't feeling like it was terribly hard, until the first climb in the singletrack. I was blown out the back of the front group pretty quickly and fell back to 8 or 9th, with the lead group of 3 and the chase group of 6 in front of me after the first rocky climb. I  burped my front tire in the creek crossing before the climb, but it was rideable so I kept my fingers crossed it would hold air.   After the climb my legs were locked and I was suffering, but I managed to keep the chase group in sight, led by Dan, and kept pushing. After the first climb on the Berryman it is mostly flow down to Brazil and I was able to close the 45-60 second gap to the chase group and Dan, Kenny and I took the lead with Brody in tow. 

From Brazil to Berryman we put a gap on Brody and rode together, but my weakness was apparent and there were a few of the climbs that I got gapped and caught back up on the flats/descents. We hit the campground at 1:40 or so, which was close to 5 minutes faster than the 4:20 pace I was targeting. The number of people going nuts at the Berryman Campground was unreal and definitely lifted the pace with adrenaline. Dan casually mentioned his NP was 270, which probably wasn't good for me to hear.   Kenny tossed his pack, grabbed a bottle and we started flossing. 

About 20 minutes later the rain started. Nothing like later in the race, but things were getting slick, my glasses were getting messy and I wanted them off. Sometime before the spring I got gapped. I started the climb after the spring with them in sight, maybe 20 seconds ahead but by the Floyd Tower Road crossing they told me it was 45 seconds, and I never saw them again. I had not seen Brody in quite some time and hit the mid race funk.

At the last fire road crossing before exiting Berryman I saw Mark Grumpke and he was nice enough to take my glasses, which really helped. I exited Berryman, climbed out and hit the gravel. I was trying to stay focused but was getting gravel in my eyes and was feeling the funk. I took some Tylenol and hit the Three Sisters section at about 3:05, a little slower than pace.

This is when the weather started to change. By the first climb it was dark, wet and raining fairly hard. Surprisingly, it wasn't as slick as I would have expected. I was able to ride fairly strong up the climbs and was descending well, considering the wetness. When I crested the last climb it looked to be clear over to the left, where I was heading and was optimistic but by the time I hit the cow pasture it was raining very hard and there was standing water on all the gravel. 

I grabbed a bottle at Bass, saw Terry, was amazed that they weren't pulling racers and kept going. 

On the climb out of Bass it was pouring buckets and it hit me- I was sitting in 6th overall and just had to ride it out. There was no way I was turning back and in the back of my mind I contemplated the chance of a place change before the finish and got pretty fired up. 

When I hit the gravel at the top it was insanity. The gravel was under water, almost completely, and the rain was now dumping. The rain was so heavy from here to the finish that there never was a time I could see clearly. Not long after I turned off the gravel into the singletrack the real shit hit the fan and the storm crested out of one valley and was directly over me on the ridge. There was lightning followed by immediate cracks. I was mostly right thinking it was heading in the opposite direction as I descended into the other side of the ridge. Riding through the technical descent was pretty much Jedi at this point but somehow I only had to dismount to get through the gulley at the bottom.

I think the Tylenol was working and I wasn't feeling much as I climbed out, literally through a stream down the trail. I was keeping my eye on the clock and amazed that I was still running a pretty respectable time, given the obvious slower pace, and crossed the line at 4:23. There wasn't anyone there. It was fairly comical how anticlimactic it was. I went inside, saw Kenny drying off and that was that. 

I'm still digesting this and it's a little tough to swallow the "what could have been" aspect of it had it remained dry, but am pretty amazed I was able to do that. I was shooting for a top 15 overall and a 4:20 pace and to finish 6th with a 4:23 in those conditions is quite rewarding and up there with one of my best performances ever. 

9/13 Burnin' at the Bluff 6 hr Solo, 1st. Course record.

Sometime in the spring I got the idea in my head that since my racing age would be 50 next year, I'd like to take a run at Nationals. Prior to that my focus had been more on XC type racing/training but when I quickly realized that the modern XCO courses and 1:15 minute races weren't my thing, I focused on the XCM. I bought a USAC license, put a few USAC races on the calendar to accumulate so call up points and started focusing on 3 hour races. It was going well and somewhere along the way, in June I think, the Burnin' race was scheduled in Sept and I got over my lack of enthusiasm for point to point style races and registered for the BT Epic for the first time. I changed my plan, which had revolved around the Miner Tough XC race the first week in July, and started doing marathon races. I lost sight of any A priority race and changed the training for the Burnin' and BT. In the back of my mind I was thinking about seeing how I compared to the 6 HR solo Burnin' in 2008, but it wasn't until mid August that I started to consider I had a chance. A few before the race I went down to Council Bluffs, rode 4 laps and realized I had the fitness to do it and also came to the realization that if I rode the race with a very specific pacing plan and didn't have any issues, it almost seemed like it would be easy. 

Everything leading up to the event was perfect. There were so many key aspects of training that didn't exist back in the day that I was able to incorporate and was noticing the gains. We had some issues with our flights to the Cape and I was able to get in 2 bonus days of hard training, knowing I would be off the bike for a week, and got after it. By mid August after about 8 weeks of reverse periodization following the last race in July, my top end loss was noticeable, but the diesel over drive was insane. I was ultra optimistic. 200 watt average, 10.5mph or better and nothing extended over 300 w was the plan. 

Once I started tapering the anxiety started to creep in as did another heat wave. My goal was to get in under 6 hours and do the 6th lap, which really meant no issues whatsoever. Council is tough on tires, tough on the body and easy place to make mistakes and I've had too many of those experiences leading to 2 DNF's and two of the hardest crashes I've taken on a mountain bike. I couldn't shake the anxiety and then the weather shifted with a heat wave rolling in and a high of 95, before the heat index, on race day. I had had a tough time maintaining 3 hr race pace in the heat early in the season, but have been sticking with the heat training and knew that if I was riding tempo it wouldn't be as bad. 

Casey and I went to see Ryan Adams on the Tuesday before the race, I had two whiskeys and apparently not drinking much and being in race shape was a bad combo and I had a rough next day but didn't miss the key workout. By Friday I was a little worn out from the anxiety but feeling fresh and ready for race day.

I took in a massive amount of cabs on race morning, had Casey and Amelia to help with ice socks and cold water at the beach and had the backups at the campground. The plan was pretty much perfect, I just needed to execute.

Luckily there wasn't a Lemans start! I got a really good jump and had a few seconds gap by the trail. On the first climb I could see Alessandro and another rider before I turned the corner, maybe 40 seconds back, but that was the last I saw of them. Very smooth and what felt like a easy first lap turned out to be 1:08. My only real hiccup came on lap two about 100 yards down the trail, right after you turned from the campground drop in onto the lake loop. I saw someone fishing and when I looked up I grabbed a fistful of brakes and went straight into a tree. It jacked up my computer mount but I didn't drop anything. I focused on focusing and went back to work. 

On lap 3 Casey had gone for a swim and missed the hand up so I stopped for 10-15 seconds to grab two ice socks and a bottle, but aside from that, it was the only time I was off the bike. I was having weird issues with my right big toe, maybe from crashing, but other than that was feeling really good and was turning sub 1:09 laps, which still felt easy. 

By lap 4 I had to focus a little more on drinking but was still feeling fresh and asked Casey to stick around as I was going to go for 6 and had a big enough gap that unless something really went wrong on lap 5, I would easily make the cutoff. Lap 4 was just over 1:10. 

Lap 5 became hot and harder, but I was having no issues with my legs, just my hands. I have been working on my triceps quite a bit after having issues earlier in the season but the roughness of the trail was causing some nerve related pain in my left hand and it became harder to concentrate. I was pretty confident that I had a big enough lead by the lap times alone, but I had no idea. I came through somewhere around 5:50 and Matt was getting people riled up that I was doing a 6th but when I heard that Tom was in second and had pulled the plug, I did too. Maybe a touch anti-climatic but doing a parade lap would have really put me in the hurt locker and I'm glad I didn't.

This is likely the most perfect race from start to finish I've had from training, nutrition, execution and race specific fitness. Aside from the issues with my hands and losing from focus on the last lap it felt easy and short. The heat never affected me, and the fact that I was able to turn 5 laps within 3:30 of the fastest and slowest with a heat index of over 100 is still hard for me to believe. 

I almost executed the plan to the minute.

7/13 UFD Heartbreaker, XCM, 1st.

 It took me a long time to recover from the back to back races in the heat at Rhett's and Klaus but after modifying the plan and skipping racing Miner tough, I was starting to sleep better, RHR dropped to normal and I was getting the itch/fire to race again. I was on the fence again about the XCO or XCM but opted for the XCM to get the longer racing miles in. When the call was made the night before to shorten the races to a 2 hr cutoff for the XCM and 3 laps for the XCO, I was glad I made that decision as a 1 hr XC race is not my jam. 

Doing the back to back long races jacked up my plan, so I re-arranged to try to race with a positive form number, which would be the first time this season. Super low stress week at work, good nutrition and a lot of rest on Saturday and I was at +6. I got in a few reduced duration intensity sessions and was feeling pretty good but my legs were feeling super loaded up on Sat, which was weird. Can't explain it, possibly the nitrous. 

This was going to be a fast race without big time gaps due to the lack of tech and climbing. With the shorter format and brutal road/hill start I got in a good warmup but couldn't shake the feeling in my legs, but retrospectively I'm going to chalk it up to a good thing. I hit my highest 1 minute power on a mountain bike at the start and took off. I had a 10 second or so gap right before the right hander/first climb, clipped my bar and yardsaled, bottles and head unit everywhere. I slammed my shoulder into the dirt and slid on my knee. Fortunately, it was all dirt and I was fine at the time but the shoulders pretty sore today.  I got passed by Jamey, Ploch and two other guys. I tried not to overact but also was committed to racing like an XC race and caught back up pretty quickly, and moved to the front of the race. By the end of the lap I had a 15 second gap and could see Jamey in the start finish loop. 

From there it was pretty smooth sailing aside from some dropped bottles, which I didn't stop for. Casey and Amelia were there to give me handups, which really helped. I was running 100g bottles but the addition of 20 grams of fructose wasn't good. I don't think 1/2 scoop of the electrolyte mix was helping either. Probably will skip both moving forward. 

I finished 3 laps in 1:06:22, which would have been good for 3rd in the XCO race. By lap 4 I was churning 21.5 minute laps, my legs had opened up and there wasn't much lapped traffic. When I was at the top of the climb before the first road crossing I saw Chris and Jamey get swalloled up by the Cat 1 field that had just started at the bottom of the climb and couldn't gauge how much of a gap that was, but it didn't seem like much. I came to the crossing and had to wait for the whole Cat 2 field to get up the (steep) climb. I was chomping at the bit, for sure, and I lost 20-30 seconds but once I got passed was riding hard.  My goal was to try to stay in front of the Cat 1 field, which I did, until about a mile from the finish on my last lap when Dan and Isaac caught me. I was able to stay with them until the finish and was pretty stoked seeing Casey and Amelia and celebrated my 4th win of 5 starts this season. 

I ended up with my highest 1 hr power since I bought the MTB last June and tying my 90 min power with Klauss. Really pleased with everything. Looking forward to a lot of base training for the Burnin' 6hr and BT Epic!

6/29 UFD Klaus Park, XCM, 1st.

 I'm hoping this race won't be the pinnacle of fitness potential, but in terms of what I had to give, it was a near perfect race. If I had a pit for this race, I think it could have been almost flawless execution. 

After a deep dive into some David Roche wisdom, and bouncing the ideas off Dan the Man Miller (now National Gravel Champ!!!), I continued my season's approach of trying new things, which seems to be paying off. 

After getting the monkey off my back last weekend, I probably let my hair down a bit too much during the week, but didn't have any big workouts and felt pretty recovered by Thursday. I was really planning on doing the XCO race, but after seeing Jimmy, Ploch and a lot of others registered for the XCM, I went for it. We'll see how that goes for next weekend, but yesterday was definitely confirmation that the plan is working as I set all time high metrics since buying the mtb just over a year ago, but more than anything, the ability to keep pushing for the duration of the race was an incredible feeling. 

I was almost certain the race would be cancelled due to rain and there was rain in the forecast the morning of, but after kitting up and a little rain shower I pre-rode and found the track to be in perfect condition. Tacky and ultra fast. It deteriorated slight with by the end of the race, I bet there were 200 riders on it, but you could rail turns and it was just flat out fun.

My goal was to go out hard and see how long I could hold it. Jimmy didn't flinch and we were off. Not long after I clipped a pedal and double unclipped but recovered and stayed in front. Jimmy was talking about riding together for the first few hours and then going no holds barred but I really had no intention of planning anything other than focusing on my race. Shortly after that, he crashed, I had daylight and started working on a gap that grew each lap. 

I was able to bang out two sub 20 laps and then settled into a ultra consistent 20-ish pace, only slowing to grab bottles of water to cool, ice socks and nutrition bottles on alternating laps so I never had to stop, just slow. 

It wasn't terribly hot but was very humid and I was soaked, especially noticeable in my gloves and shoes. The heat wasn't getting to me at all and I was doing a solid job of cooling. There was tons of lapped traffic on such a short course with so many people, most of whom were obliging and got out of the way. I tried to pass as quickly and efficiently as possible to keep the gains coming. 

My upper body was paying the price but I was able to hammer, if anything, I think most of the time loss was due to my handling failing, not my fitness. On lap 5 I accidently grabbed two ice socks and one got wrapped in my wheel that cost a bit, on lap 7 I dropped a bottle in the feed and then on lap I I stopped to grab my last two bottles for the last two laps and dump the ice over my head, all of which cost me a little time, but still, the lap times were incredibly consistent.

I finished the last lap strong at just over 3 hrs, 8 mins up on Jimmy and 15+ on 3rd.

My time of 1:40:38 for the first 5 would have been enough for 2cd overall in the XCO race, and the last 5 laps was 1:44:17 would have been enough for 5th. 

Hoping I didn't go to deep for next weekend, but we'll find out! Thinking I'll do the XCO race, but not totally sure. 

6/22 UFD Rhett's Run Sauna Edition, XCM, 1st.

Epic week of anxiety as I entered the race block. No matter how old I get, how many races I win, how fit I think I am or who I'm racing, this has been my Achilles heel since Pirtle took me to my first race at Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky late in 2002. 

Both of the previous races I did this year were in the middle of training, so I was going into this with a clean slate and not a bunch of confidence you get from racing. After two good workouts last weekend and enjoying myself a little too much on Fathers Day, I took two days of rest as my plan was to do the XCM race, which would surpass the planned TSS for the taper week and since April 1, with one or two exceptions, I have stuck exactly to the plan. I felt amazingly good for the openers workout on Sat morning, but at that point wasn't certain which race I was going to do for a few reasons; mainly the heat and not wanting to do the XCM if there wasn't much competition, but at that point there were only 3 people in the XC race.  I drove to Columbia and pre-rode. It was brutally hot and the trail was far more technical with a lot more climbing than I remembered. There wasn't much flow on the downhill sections for recovery, which had a lot of switchbacks and tech section. The climbing was step with hard switchbacks, very technical sections and lots of it. Climbing 8/10, flow 4/10.

I thought the XCM race was at 9 (didn't find out it was at 11 until about 5p the day before when I went into Walt's in Columbia for some grips) so was leaning towards that due to the heat and some fast kids registering by Saturday after my pre-ride. My mind was blown when Sam told me the XCM start was at 11 and the XC was at 1230 as it was going to be brutal heat either way, so I stuck with the plan and registered for the XCM.

I did a minimal warm up, set up my ice socks and nutrition cooler and lined up. They reduced the time cutoff time to 2:30 due to the heat, which was fine with me. It was a long gravel/grass start before the single track and I was expecting all the young guns to go for it so I led it out hard and sprinted once we hit the grass. Isaac was on my wheel but didn't try to jump me. We had a gap immediately which grew to over a minute on the first lap. Isaac seemed calm, on my wheel and very chatty, which definitely worried me as I was going pretty hard. I generally don't talk to much but was trying to be friendly. Left quad was a little locked up from the lack of warm up, but I was riding really well, the bike felt good and I never reached the unreversible boiling point.  I did a quick 5-10 second pit to grab an ice sock and took off on lap two and Isaac let me pass to stay on my wheel, which he did for about 5 minutes into the lap when he told me he was feeling the heat. I respectfully, since he is a kid,  told him that it wasn't my first rodeo and wasn't falling for the mind games. Shortly after, he was gone, I made a few efforts to extend a lead,  and I never caught sight of him again. 

I pitted again, as I would every lap and ticked out another good lap to finish my 3rd lap in 30:05,  1:28 total, which would have put me in 3rd OA in the Cat 1 race results. Lap 3 was uneventful and I still was sweating and handling the heat well. 

Lap 4 was more of the same with a 30:08 and my average times for the first 4 laps was 29:36+/- and pretty consistent. I started to realize that I was going to come very close to the 2:30 cutoff and was prepared to do a 6th lap. 

Lap 5 was harder. Power was dropping and I wasn't sweating as much but my legs felt great, just not capable of pushing as hard at the same HR, which was also staying steady. Historically I haven't been able to maintain the same HR without it falling off or skyrocketing, so I think this is a good sign, especially given the heat. I was caught by the front two riders in the Cat 1 race and was able to stay in contact with them for a bit. I was pushing about the same power on the climbs, but wasn't able to maintain it though the flats, etc, as I was early in the race. Lap time was 31:22

I came through the start finish on the heels of the two cat 1 guys so people weren't sure of which race I was doing and it was unclear to me what the time was. my lap time had slowed by over a minute.  Someone said keep going. I didn't have any bottles or heat socks left, which was poor planning, and had  no idea whatsoever of  how close anyone was. I wasn't getting any help from any of the teams there, so I dumped a cooler of ice on my head and took off. Seeing the results it turns out I was 13 seconds before the cutoff and had over a 13 minute lead.

I felt pretty confident I had a lead and just needed to protect it going into the last lap. I wasn't powered down and HR was still responsive, but I had no water to cool and wasn't sweating much. I had some motivation when two of the Cat 1 riders came up on me halfway through the lap and I was able to stay in contact to the finish. Lap time slowed to 31:34, so two minutes slower than avg for first 3 laps, but really not terrible.

Overall, super stoked to take a win in exceptionally hard conditions and glad the nutrition, bike and fitness all felt great. It's a little tough to see / watched the power drop steadily, way more than usual, over the course of the race but the fact that I could keep my HR pushing is a good sign in heat like that. Seeing how recovery goes before calling the next 3 races.

I had 3 gel blocks an hour before with a Red Bull, a Enervit Cheer pack 15 mins before= 80 grams pre-ride hour. I finished 3.5 bottles at 80 g each total 280 by 2:30 mins, one 40 gram gel at ;45, one 40 g gel at 1:30, one 30 g caff gel at 2:15 for 390 in 2.5 hrs/ 156 hr and then had 3 Clif Blocks on the last lap. I felt a tinge of belly upset after the first gel but think it was just going hard and eating, no issues after that and was always thirsty for the mix. I think I drank a few bottles but also used a lot of water for cooling. 

5/17 Sugar Cubed USAC XCM, 4th.

*totally un-pro podium pick due to Reynaud's. I lost all feeling in my hands once I cooled down and was wearing all the clothes I brough, and glove. It was about 60 degrees out. 

 In the quest to rack up some USAC points I headed to Iowa for the Sugar Cubed XCM race. Looking at some of the registered riders and previous podiums I knew there was some talent but really had no idea that it would be as deep and close it would be. Aside from the 16 year old phenom, Mason Wilson, there was a 13 minute gap between the 2cd and 9th place rider, over a 3.5-ish hour race. It was really fun racing and I'll definitely go back. 

The two weeks prior was the suck with a sinus infection, Z Pack and Prednisone treatment that ended the Tues before the Sat start. I felt pretty good by Friday with a little residual gunk. Christopher and I headed up early on Friday to pre-ride which didn't help at all with dialing in the course, it was just too long with far too much twisty riding and limited visibility that only locals would benefit from, but it did familiarize us with the layout and the track conditions, which was hard packed hero dirt with literally no rocks, all 14 miles of it. I was running the Rick XCs, which have not been good to me and lost my front wheel unexpectedly and went down pretty hard. I hit the palm of my hand, road rash on my hip and a big bruise/rash on my right calf from the tire, which was the worst of it. Other than not being able to follow the Garmin for the trail since it was so twisty, we rode most of the stuff  in 2 hrs, which was way longer that I wanted to be riding. 

There were about 40 riders the next morning and many looked serious. It wasn't the typical marathon field where 25% were racing and 75% weren't. We figured out it was a Lemans start, a little bit of slightly uphill gravel and a start loop we hadn't ridden the day before. I opted for one 80g bottle of nutrition per lap with a 40g gel every 45 mins and a bottle and skipped the USWE since it wasn't hot. Nutrition was pretty much dialed and my stomach was better than KC. I snuck in a few Clif blocks early on the last lap, which definitely helped.

The start was ultra fast, full on XC race pace. I was on the second wheel until just before the single track and jumped on Mason's wheel when he came on the left. He was flossing the single track and there were already gaps behind me and I was already off his wheel by a second or two when I hit the deck on a grassy right hander and slipped back to 7th. I was actually surprised I wasn't passed by more but it was ultra fast right away. I stayed in contact with the group for the first 3 miles or so and then started to lose ground. I was using a lot of power in and out of every turn, which were many. The course really wasn't predictable at all and there was limited to no straight line riding. I quickly found myself in no mans land with a group of 3 chasing, about 7 seconds back. 

By the top of the gravel climb on the first lap I was out of sight to the chasers and could catch glimpses of the lead pack, minus Mason, on the horseshoe sections. My first lap was about a minute slower than the top 5. I caught a rider a few miles into the second lap and after  another few miles had put some time into him and was out of sight by the top of the gravel climb. The second lap was slow and I still wasn't gaining any confidence or flow. 

Early in the 3rd lap I started to see a rider ahead and caught him a few miles in. I expected it was going t be a battle for the rest of the lap but he let me pass and I dropped him pretty quickly, which I definitely was surprised by. By the gravel climb I was out of sight which was at least 30 seconds. 

With about 5 miles to go I started to close on Evan Hartig and once I made contact we rode together for  a bit before he let me pass. Initially I thought this was tactical on his part but I was able to drop him pretty quickly and it wasn't long before he was out of sight. I was floored by how much faster I was going on this lap which was the fastest 3rd lap, aside from Mason. I extended the gap and rode it in for 4th place. I was amazed to learn I was only a minute behind Michael Maney and 3 minutes behind Michael Colleran. Mason destroyed everyone with a 16 minute gap over 2cd and a new course record which was 20 minutes faster than his time from 2024. My time of 3:25:59  was about 6 minutes faster than the winning time in both 2024 and 2023. All 3 riders in front of me rode for the Sugar Bottom Team, named after the trail. 

My average power was 222 and NP was 249. This was higher than any XC race I did last year, for 3:25 minutes. I'm floored. I'm not going to double down about being sick or not knowing the course as I'm incredibly happy with the result, but I can genuinely say I've never been racing as blind as this. 

Maximum USAC points achieved due to age group. Mission accomplished.