The first race of the 2019 season out at Vail Lake and I'm super stoked to be riding with SoCal Devo again. This time I was racing in the 2 person 6-hour open men category with Adin Papell, another one of my Devo teammates.
I started the race for our team and was a couple row back from the front. The thing I don't like about starting in a race like that is there are so many people racing to be at the front and you want to be sure you are going to get a good spot heading into the single track. Everyone is wheel to wheel, handlebar bar to handlebar trying to get the best line and get to the front more. By the time the parade lap was over and we were out on course we were all spread out and I was in the top 10. The first lap was really fast, way faster than I was expecting and by the time I came around finishing my first lap I was spent. I handed the baton to my teammate Adin hoping that he was feeling good.
Sitting there for only 35-40 minutes I saw that Adin was just about to come through to finish our team's second lap. I got ready really quick and jumped on the bike for lap number 2 for me. During this lap, I was feeling super strong and was passing people left and right. I was sure that this lap was going to be my fastest lap, and it was. Even at the end of the lap, I was still feeling strong. I passed the baton to Adin and watched him take off.
I went into the pit and got hydrated and got something to eat. After waiting a while I saw Adin going up the trail right behind the timing tent which from there takes about 10 minutes to finish the rest of the lap. I got all my Rudy Project gear back on and started to warm up a bit before going out on my third lap. I started out a little slow on lap three going into the first single track but by the end, I was feeling fast again. Traffic at this point on the trails was spread out along the whole course and there was always someone on the trails just a little ways ahead so you always have someone to chase. Personally, I like the middle section of the course the most. It is more fun than any other part of the course but the course as a whole is really fun and a good course for this type of racing. After finishing lap 3 I found out that we were 45 seconds behind fourth place and I was driven to catch them. Adin Came threw on his third lap and totally cramped up right before he got to me. I took the baton from him and got into my zone to try to catch fourth place. I ended up catching him in the middle of the lap and I knew that I needed to give Adin a little bit of a gap to play with going into the next lap. I came through and gave him about a minute gap on the team I had just passed and by the time he came through again the gap was even bigger. My last lap, lap 5, I gave it everything I had left in me because I knew it would be my team's last lap. I tried to pass as many people as possible hoping that they were in my category. In the end, none of them were in my category and we ended up holding on to fourth place.
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