As usual, I start slow and let the aggressive riders get ahead of me and out of my way. I thought I was so far behind at the end of first lap, but hubby told me L2 was only 20 seconds ahead of me. I know she tends to fade late in the races, so I started to push harder. When I finally got her in my sights, I was pretty excited. I told myself to push and stay with her until the last mile or two of slogging through mud. I know I can outrun her, and I was guessing she would have to get off the bike for those segments. I couldn't believe that I was able to pass her earlier on the flat gravel path. It was easy riding then, and I was just trying to hold her at that point. I was surprised that I could pass her then. Then when we went back into the single track, I rode hard because I was worried that with her superior technical skills, she would pass me. And I pushed hard during the un-ridealbe parts. She never did catch me, and I beat her by 5 minutes. I think she got a little discouraged when I passed her. We know each other strengths/weaknesses pretty well, so I think she knew I would be stronger on the last mile of mostly unrideable terrain.

Nothing.

This is a fun race. The sponsoring business, Bikeman, puts on a great feast of hot soup, bread, fresh-picked apples, and gingerbread. The soup was a fantastic pumpkin-carrot-ginger soup. Yum.


A great way to end the mtn bike series!