Ashland...better late than never!

   Some might have checked out my link to Shine's story on last weekend's racing action, but if not, here's a full report.  The weather couldn't have been nicer, with cool enough temps not to roast on either day, but warm enough to hang out in shorts and enjoy the sunshine. We got up there on Friday in time to shuttle one run from the top of the downhill course all the way down to the bottom of the cross country course, which was nice to see the trail we'd be racing on the next day.

   At the last minute Kit decided to enter the cross country on Saturday, so he and my dad would start together 15 minutes after me in the Cat 2 race and be chasing me the entire way. As my first real XC race in probably 6 years, this was a real doozy: 9 miles of climbing, followed by another 8 of flat fire road pedaling (both of which I really stink at right now), and finally a fast, switchback filled singletrack descent. The whole way up the climb I was questioning my sanity as the rest of my category disappeared up the road, and though the girl ahead of me had a 2 minute gap at the top of the climb, I'm pretty sure that increased by a lot over the 45 minutes of flat road. I finally got to make up some time on the descent, passing quite a lot of riders who blew by me on the flat, but not nearly enough to catch the closest woman at about 1 minute back. A time of 2:15 for the 24.5 mile course, 6th place out of 6, about 20 minutes back from the winner of the women's race...I've got some work to do to get back into cross country racing shape here! Kit came in at 2:07 on his single speed, but didn't quite manage to make up for my head start and catch me in the race.

   Being pretty worn out after the XC I still questioned my sanity, wondering whether I'd have enough left in the tank for the downhill race on Sunday. A few practice runs before the race felt good; finding a smooth line through the only rock section on the course, and my legs were actually doing fine for pedaling. Excellent! Though my big V-10 was really not the bike of choice on this smooth, flowy trail, it still was a blast to ride and definitely crushed the rocks and one small jump at the top of the course. Fun!!!  My race run went great except for one small bobble when I just randomly rode off the trail toward a tree, but I got back on track in a couple of seconds and soon was sprinting up the hill toward the finish. Crossing the line at 4:50 with the fastest girls' time of the day was pretty rad, 9 seconds ahead of second place, and Shine teammate Kirstie Douglass took third fastest time for the ladies! 

  It was a super fun weekend of bikes and racing, hanging out with the family at a nice bed & breakfast, and I can't wait to ride in Ashland again. My ability to race 2 events in a row without too much trouble amazed me, as I had half expected to not be able to get out of bed on Sunday morning. Maybe with more training of the uphill sort things should get even better. Since it just rained/snowed up here in the mountains today the trail conditions will be epic, just perfect for bike time on my 3-day weekend and training for the Fears, Tears and Beers enduro in 2 weeks!