K to the J: Collegiate MTB Nationals (Part Three)

Saturday. Short Track. I opted out of watching the womens race this time, so I could eat and warm up up and everything. We got down there in time to see their finish though, before warming up some. Then we headed over to call up, which had apparently been fixed. Nope. Just as bad as last time.

Then some guy on the front row crashed at the start of the race. So me, and everyone around me, got to stand there while everyone else went around first. Ten seconds into the race I was third from last. In a field of almost 70.

For whatever reason though, people decided to get out of my way again on the gravel climb (same one as the xc, we started at the bottom of it), and I was able to move up pretty quickly. It used up energy I didn't want to waste that early in the race, but, there wasn't really anything else I could do...

We turned onto a flatter jeep road section, and I went by some more people before we hit the big bottleneck section going into a singletrack section to head back down hill. There wasn't any passing through that, the last short downhill jeep road (it was too fast), or the downhill switchbacks back into the village. I got some more people on the short loop through the village around the gondola building, and then we headed up the hill again for another lap.

I passed some people, some people passed me, and then with four laps to go I go pulled. That might sound bad, but they pulled all but about the top ten before the end of the race. I ended up 31st, and was the top Texas finisher again. Chad flatted though, so its hard to say how how that would've turned out otherwise.

Now: picture time!

Cross country