Beaver Meadows MTB Weekend

Sorry for the short post lately, but I've been busy and the blog has been shoved to the bottom of the list of things to do. So it's late, and I'll try to write a brief re-cap of this past weekend. It was my first collegiate experience. Good times were had. The team consists of a bunch of really cool people and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

Saturday:
Short track races are really painful. This course was around a mile long. Nothing too technical as it was all fire roads basically. The back side had a false flat into the headwind that was a killer. The women's A's did 20 min + 2 laps. At the beginning, I covered quite a few of the attacks and tried to stay 2nd or 3rd wheel from the front. Some girl pushed the pace on the backside and I eventually popped but managed to stay 5th. Coming into the last lap, I could hear someone behind me. I knew there was someone close by because I had been riding with her but dropped her at some point. I locked out my fork and prepared for a sprint. She came around me on the final straight, I grabbed her wheel for a quick break. Then I came around her and sprinted for the finish. I was able to hold her off for a 5th place finish. Couldn't breathe afterwards and felt like I was going to pass out. I guess that's what racing at 9000feet does to you. I really don't like short track.

Sunday:
Cross country races are a little better. Woke up in the FREEZING cold and mist. Really thought I wasn't going to race, but decided what the heck. It was probably 40 degrees when we took off...brrr!!!! The course was right at 10 miles long. The uphills were time consuming, but nothing compared to Winter Park. Lots and lots of rocks. It was a pretty technical course, but fun. There was a stream crossing that wasn't pretty much unrideable, so my feet were frozen. There was also a rock garden that was pretty much unrideable, unless you are super good at that kind of thing. The race started off decent. I didn't warm up, at all. My legs felt like bricks for the first few minutes. I was about 6th place coming into the single track. Fortunately, there was an uphill that was really loose, so we all walked up it. This helped my legs warm up and also helped me move up a few spots before reaching the technical stuff. My legs started to feel awesome. I really didn't care where I finished in the race, so I kept telling myself - "Just ride your own race". That is what I did. I came through the first lap in 3rd place, after just passing a girl. She stuck close by though. The second lap I felt decent, and caught 2nd place (which I thought was 1st place, but I guess a CU girl was 3 minutes up the trail). I hung with her for a while. Then I started crashing. That really slowed me down. The 2nd place girl could descend way better than me. I don't know what I was doing wrong, as I really wasn't breaking all that much. So she got away from me. The 4th place girl caught me and passed me on this uphill fire road that came up on me way too fast. I shifted down and my chain sucked. I had to run up the loose stuff and she got a considerable gap. Tried to stick with her, but I kept crashing. Crashed a total of 3 times I think, maybe more. My legs are pretty bruised as of now. Got caught by 5th place, but was able to hold her off in the technical stuff. Came across 4th place. I was pleased, considering all I wanted to do was finish. That's pretty much all. I had a fun time and am looking forward to the next one. I won't be racing mountain this weekend, as I'm headed to Parker for a twilight criterium. Should be fun times. That's all for now, I'll try to update next weekend. Take care!!
-A