SoCal #3 Keyesville

For me, this race isn't very close to home so I was thrilled to know that is was right in the middle of my two-week spring break. The week prior to the race all my rides were recovery rides so I was feeling good and was ready to race. Since I had never been to Keyesville I was excited to ride the corse and check it out. I had been hearing a lot about the big water crossing and was ready to try to ride it.

                                  

We got to the venue at around 9:30 on Friday night and had been talking to the rest of the team to figure out where we were going to stay. Since we got there in the dark and we had a new motor home and we didn't really know how to do everything. I mean figuring out what buttons did what was the hard part because there was literally a button for everything. In the morning the whole team went on a super easy pre-ride of the corse. After the pre-ride, my dad made sure everything was running smoothly on my bike for the race the next day.
     

     I woke up at about 6:30am race morning and ate breakfast which was an egg burrito. After that I laid I bed until 8:00 and then I started getting ready for the race and my warm up. I started warming up at 8:20 and was finished by 8:50 to give me ten minutes before I had to be at the line in time to not miss my call up. The starting shoot was much smaller than it was at the last race and I forgot to look at it before hand to see what side I wanted to be on. So I started in the middle so I could change lines easier depending on which line was better. Before I knew it we were off and I jumped out in front really fast to get the line I wanted then I let the other racers pass and I got on their wheel. When we got to the river crossing for the first time I was the first one through the water and I didn't let the water slow me down much. The next section of the corse was the longest climb of the race which really wasn't that long. 

     This is where the leader made his first attack and we broke away from the rest of the group. When we got to the top of the hill I made a strong effort to try to be in front of him before we got into the single track but that didn't happen so I was stuck behind him. On the climbs in the single track he would get a bit of a gap on me but on the downhill parts, I would reel him in. We came out of that single track together and I passed him going into the next one and was in front of him till right before the line where he passed me going up the last punch onto the false flat where the finish was. From that point on it was a game of carrot, rabbit, and wolf. The leader being the carrot me being the rabbit and the whole rest of the conference being the wolves. In the last five minutes of the race, one of the riders had me in his sights and was chasing me down. For those last minutes, I went all out until the line and managed not to let that person catch me.

                                       

After the race I congratulated the winner and all the riders in the chasing group and went to find a chair before I fell over. After sitting in the chair for a while I heard Jason Ranoa (also my coach) calling my name for a short interview to see how the race went.

A big shout out to all my sponsors who make this possible: ESI Grips, Kenda tires, Box Components, Ridefast, SoCal Endurance, Ellsworth Bikes, Ryno Power and Dovetail Coaching.