The race started and the pelaton rolled out. The first five miles went nice and easy and then suddenly a couple of Tri-Sports.com riders tried to make an early break. The pelaton got a little angry and we swallowed them right up.

I then move farther up in the pelaton as I did not want to get stuck back if there was a split in the group. This was when the 2 tri-sports riders started trying to break the group up. They had their ace up front and then the other rider kept trying to get in spots in the group and then slow down to create a gap. I didn't let him in when he tried to cut in by me. I just kept close to the wheel in front of me.

As we rolled along the rollers, we got to a short climb and I fell off the pelaton slightly as I was able to get back on during the descent on the other side of the climb. I would later fall off about 21 miles in as we went up the first big climb.

I got stuck in no mans land with nobody to work with. I kept grinding it out to try to catch another rider that had fallen back. I would slowly inch closer and then caught him during the climb back up the hill after the turn. Now, at the turn around I noticed on the way out that my support had not arrived yet and the RD had stated that there was no neutral support. I was a little worried about fluids but luckily was handed a bottle of water by someone just after the turn.He then seemed to get stronger and I fell back a little near the end of the 5 mile climb.

While descending down, Dean caught up to me and I jumped on and started riding with him and another rider. This was at about 32 miles in. We would keep on working together and as we caught other riders the group grew. The group grew to where there were even some CAT4s and some masters riders packed in with us. I did some work and sat on some. I would later fall off the back at about 45 miles when I went to take in some gel and water.

I ground out the next 10 miles which were mostly a gradual up hill with a little headwind.

Grind out more hills in training. I can't hang with the guys who ride their bikes daily on the hills. I did race an IM a few weeks ago so my training certainly was more of a recovery than training to peak for this race.

Rode up and talked with another rider who was in CAT5 I had met him during the Barn Burner when he lapped me up there. 19 year old pro mountain biker... he finished 7th. Then Sanchez came in and we went back to the truck.


IM recovery... didn't train to peak or ride too strong at this one.


This is a really good course. There are some things they could have done to make it better but the course is the reason I liked the race. Will most likely ride this one again next year.

Had a great time racing and hanging with friends at the race.