Sunday, August 13, 2006

Series Final

The Intermountain Cup Series Final was Saturday in Evanston. The team stayed in Bear River at Karl's cabin--he lets us all crash there which is awesome. The course was pretty good. The descents were pretty loose, but the climbs were in good condition. I feel like I climbed really well. In light of my recent issues descending--crashing at Solitude and the Epic--I started descending very cautiously. As my confidence grew with each descent I picked up some speed, but made sure that I stayed in control. I was scheduled to do two big laps and they estimated the time to be around three hours.
I have found their estimates to be a bit fast for me, so I was planning on 3+ hours, so I filled my camelbak with Endurance and a PowerGel. In retrospect this was probably over kill because I was done in about 2:35.
This course seems to lull me into a zone where I am not pushing like I probably should be.
They grouped my category with the Expert Men 40+. That made for six or seven of us on the line. I took off in front of everyone because I wanted my pick of lines through the rocky start. I knew the guys would pass and they did. I kept in front of my competition through the first climb and descent, but there was the zone just like last year. I got passed by another in my category, so I jumped on her wheel. I was going to sit back there for a while and take it easy, but it was a bit too easy. I feared that if I went to pass she would ride my draft because it was a slight climb for a while. I decided to do it. I jumped out in front of her and gave a good acceleration. When I looked back I had gapped her...sweet. I knew that she descended well, so I had to get as much of a gap as possible.
I almost cleaned the four wheeler road--it is a steep climb. I flowed through the next descent to the next climb. It was not until the same spot as the first lap that I saw her again on my second lap. This time I made sure she never caught all the way up. I ended up about a minute and half in first.



My first win in this category. It was great!
Holley's swept first place;chris was too.

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