Sunday, July 22, 2007

I think I am fixed. I felt good yesterday during my race. I took second to amanda riley who is just fast. She is not quite Kathy Sherwin fast, but fast none the less. The course was great. It is technical, but ridable. I made all the climbs on all my laps including the technical rocky one, the steep one just after the 12 and under turn off, and the long gravel climb towards the end.
My second lap did give me some problems. Let me set the scene for you. Chris suffered another technical. His chain broke, so I passed him on my first lap. He caught up with me about half way through my second lap. Not much further there was a series of wood plank bringes over a muddy section. There was a guy taking pictures right there. With Chris right behind me and my picture being taken, I lost a little focus and my rear wheel slid off. I had enough momentum that I did not have to stop, but made it to the trail. Chris apparently did the exact same thing behind me. I also strugged at the latter end of the lap on a couple rocky sections when my pedals hit some rocks. Let's just say I was not smooth through those sections, but made it pretty much unscathed.
Chris decided to just ride with me through the rest of the race. He rethought it a couple of times, but then ended up waiting for me again. I, in return, did his last 12 and under lap with him. It was not at race pace though.

We also rode a trail west of wilson. I think it is called Black Canyon. We park at the bottom and climb the old pass road to the top. Then traverse the mountain for a ways and before heading down. It is a great descent that zig-zags down the mountain. All the switch backs mean that the down hill lasts a long time which is always good.Here is chris coming down the meadow (above). The foilage was really deep as you can see below. There were lots of areas with those tall purple flowers.

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