I felt OK with my time trail results but am a bit disappointed with my performance on the heat race results. I went too hard at the start to get the wholeshot into the woods and led the entire race. I had a pretty big lead going into the woods and watched (heard) it slip away. They guys were slowly gaining on my on the single track and when we got out into to clearing it was a sprint finish I could not sustain. First mistake- I had a serious lack of the will to win which is different than the wanting to win. I could have just sucked it up and pushed through the pain and probably could have made it onto the next round. My second mistake was poor strategy. I was the hunted not the hunter. I should have sat back and patiently waited to make my move late in the race. I out sprinted these guys going into the woods I could have certainly out sprinted them at the end if I had just a bit more in the tank and the will to deal with the pain. Third mistake- I need more road miles and interval training. This course was non-technical and fast. It favored guys with legs and lungs vs. guys with bike handling skills

Strategize better, train harder.

Grabbed a Gatorade and watched the other heats to cheer on my teammates and most importantly my daughter


1. Lack of the will to win
2. Poor strategy
3. Lack of interval training.



Fun race as usual, MY performance could have been better. My daughter decided to make this her 1st mountain bike race. She did awesome and placed 3rd in the women's cat4 division. This is a good start for a 13 y.o. who does has not ridden a bike further than to her friends house or the neighborhood pool let alone ride a mountain bike AND race it . She’s a runner and a superb volleyball player so her conditioning for those sports helped on the bike. She’s been bitten by the bike bug and has made several friends in her age group as a result. Watching her enjoy herself and want to race again was the best result off all.