Keyesville 2019

20 more seconds. Don’t look back. You want it more than he does (if someone is there). Don’t back off now, you’ve gone this far don’t give up, 20 more seconds.
Being physically ready to race is only half the battle, being mentally prepared is the other half and the results only come if you have both. These are the few things I kept rolling through my head the whole race to keep me motivated and dedicated. I’d like to start off thanking my coach and dad for believing me and installing into me that I can do this.
It’s race day, and it’s hot but I live in Temecula where the heat is real and I train in it every day so I was ready for it. Once again getting mentally prepared. Getting to the line I was hoping that we wouldn’t be sent off late because the girls started a half hour late. We were only sent off 5 minutes late so it wasn’t too bad. I had an ice soaked rag on my neck and back to keep me cool at the line in the sun and a few minutes till I went off I ate a gel and gave my dad the rag. Now it’s on, racing is about to start and I’m in the second row in a good spot.

GO!!! We were off and I was determined to get to the creek crossing in the top 5 to avoid any crashes or slowdowns. I was very aggressive in the start shoot and was not about to back down for anyone. I got past the creek and onto the climb in 5th position. We were spread out on the length of the road riding 3 or 4 wide and I was in the second row. A rider started to come up the left side of me that I didn’t what to be in front of me because I didn't want any chance at losing the front guys wheels. I locked Bars with him for just a second until I pulled out of it and he realized I wasn’t going to back down. The group started to string out about halfway up the climb and I got into 5th position and we picked the pace up a little bit but not dramatically. We were almost to the top and I looked back to see who was there and I realized that the top 4 and I were getting a gap on the group. I psyched my self out for a second when I realized that I was in the break and all I had to do was stay there as long as I could. I quickly got my head back in the game and focused on the long task ahead because it was nowhere near done. We got to the bottom of the decent and onto the next fire road and the top 4 guys that usually run away with the race looked back and I could tell that they were surprised to see me there. Every once and a while they would look back to see if I was there or not and every time I was there right behind them determined as ever to stay with them no matter what.

Heading out on lap 2 with my teammates who raced earlier and coaches all yelling from the side of the trail was super motivating and just what I needed going into 3 laps to go. I took my feed right behind the others at a surprising my super slow pace giving me all the time in the world to do what I needed. On to the creek crossing and up the climb still with the top guys in the league and super excited as were my coaches at the top of the climb. On the decent when it got Super dusty I backed off the wheel in front of me because I couldn’t see a thing and I didn’t want anything to surprise me and take me to the ground. I caught up every time on the next climb or flat road or as soon as the trail wasn’t as dusty. We approached one of the hardest climbs of the course that was extremely steep and only got steeper by the top and was drawn out just enough that it wasn’t a sprint. I was almost sure that I was going to fall of the group on this climb but I only lost a few seconds that I made up on the descent. I kept telling myself the longer you stay with it the less likely the group of guys you know are working together behind you are to catch you. With that sentiment of motivation in my head, I was back in the game and determined again. The longer I was with the guys the more I realized how easy they were actually going and that they only picked up The tempo in a few places but when they did it was hard.

The burn in the legs was real this lap and I just kept telling my self 20 more seconds, 20 more seconds and they will back off, and they did. They would back off and I would catch my breath a bit and get ready to settle back into a hard pace. Climb after climb the hits kept coming and it never got any easier. They would put a small gap on me on the climbs and I would close it on the descents and flats where they would back off. We got to the longest climb on the course and one of the top JV riders that started after us, caught us, which is insane. He got mixed up in our group and the pace picked up a bit. By the time we got to the finishing climb, they had the biggest gap on me they had ever had the whole race. With 3 laps down the JV rider was done with his race and it was back to the same four guys I had been trying to stay with. I told myself I don’t know how far back the next rider is and it doesn’t matter because I’m going to give it what I got to catch back up and keep everyone behind me there.
I went through the creek by my self and up the next long climb to the first decent gaining on the group in front of me. I was only about 5 or 10 seconds back when one of them at the front made a strong attack to try to split up the group and at that point, they took off and were only barely in my sight for a while before they totally disappeared. I gave it everything I had that next lap trying to do anything to get the littlest edge still worried that there was a possibility that someone would catch me. Coming into the finish on the climb I didn’t know who was behind me, how far back they were or if they were in my category but I didn’t care. I just told myself that I wanted it more than they did if they were there and I was the one that stayed with the guys in the front for 3 laps so I was in the mindset to destroy someone in a sprint if it came to that. Little did I know the next guy back in my group was 4 minutes back but hey, it got me to the line quicker.

A big thanks to all my sponsors that made this 5th place finish in varsity possible. The biggest thanks of all goes to my dad for doing all he does and of course, the coaches that never give up on me and that drive me to the end of the race. Ellsworth Bikes, Rudy Project, Kenda, gup, Scicon, ESI Grips, Physiophyx, and Dryve wheels. 

Sea Otter Classic 2019

One of my favorite parts about Sea Otter is getting to meet all the people and sponsors that support our Devo team. We get to see some behind the seans things and up and coming ideas and we get to ask them questions and give them feedback on their products. The best part is getting to do it with the rest of the Devo team. 

The cross country course was completely different this year than the past few years. We started the race going up the climb on the actual raceway and into the Pro and E-bike courses earlier in the week then back on to the raceway and going up the other side of the track up the corkscrew. After that, we headed out on the trails going the opposite direction that we had gone for the past few years. This start was by far one of the hardest starts I have ever done at Sea Otter. Right off the gun, you went into three incredibly steep hills that were not at all short. One climb after the other, in grueling pain, trying to stay with the guys in front of me and catching my breath on the descent, realizing by the top of the last of the three pitches that I had only gone 2 or 3 miles and I still had 23 miles to go. By this time the whole field was totally split up and I didn't know how many people were in front of me or behind me I just started to make efforts to catch other riders. I caught up to a group of three guys, one of them being my teammate on the SoCal Devo team, and stayed right behind them until I was able to make my way to the front of them and work with my teammate. A few miles later we caught another one on my Devo teammates who, little did we know had just had a mechanical. Now there were three SoCal Devo riders in our group of five riders giving us all a strong advantage over the other 2 people in our group. Another rider ended up catching us from behind and attacking up a climb to get into the single track first. I attacked with him from the middle of the group and got into the decent in second position. For me going into a decent I like to be either first or second going into a decent so there is no chance on the lead guy getting away from me. when we got to the bottom of the decent me and the rider that made the attack had a little bit of a gap on the group behind us and we opened it up a bit more on the next climb. I was determined not to let him get away from me for the rest of the race. A few times he got a small gap that I quickly closed. The next section of the course we went down a gravel fire road off-camber steep descent into a steep climb to a fast almost flat, single track decent. On the climb up I wasn't able to stay with him and I couldn't catch back up to him on the descent. Another rider from the group I was in during the beginning of the race caught me and got ahead by just a little bit. I caught up to him later in the race and one of my teammates and another rider from the first group I was in caught up to us so it was the four of us. The next part of the course was probably the most grueling other than the start. It was an extremely steep, long climb that seemed to take forever. I broke away from the guys that I was with on that climb and put a decent gap on them. Only one of them, My teammate, was able to close the gap at all on the decent and he almost caught all the way up to me but I had just a few seconds on him when I hit the long fire road climb out. I could see the other rider that dropped me a while ago up the road with another rider drafting on him. I settled into a strong TT pace and my teammate wasn't able to hold on. I cough up to them and caught my breath for a second then quickly got the three of us organized in a TTT and we were going 21 miles an hour consistently up the hill. At the one point of the climb where it got a little bit steeper the three of us split up and I was in the middle. By the time we got back on the raceway, I could see the other rider a little ways up the track. I made a long-shot attempt to try to catch him and ended up coming just a little short. I took 14th place with my teammate right behind me with 15th.
Thank you to all my sponsors for the support, Kenda, Rudy, Scicon, Phyisiophix, Ellsworth, Gup, ESI, Canari and Dryve.


















     

Vail Lake #2 HS

The third weekend in a row out at Vail Lake and looking forward to a different venue in a few weeks. This weekend though it was a lot hotter and dustier than the previous weekends which means a different type of preparation consisting of a lot of water. My family wasn’t able to camp this weekend due to my dad being at work so I had to drive from home the day of the race. Luckily I live only 20 minutes from Vail so I didn’t have to get up too early in the morning, but I still had to do all the preparation the night before. When I woke up in the morning I was feeling sick so I was a little nervous for my race later in the day. I got to the race venue in the morning and found me a chair and sat there with my water in hand for several hours in the team pit watching my teammates race the whole morning waiting for my race. At about 12 I started getting all my feed bottles with Physiophix to the feed zone and went the the car to get my gear all together. At about 12:45 I started my warm up which I did on the dirt rather than the stationary trainer which is different than what I usually do. By the time I was done with my warmup it was time to get set up in staging. I was the 8th call up and lined up on the second row.

 Go! The race was on and we were charging towards the first single track all together. We got threw there and up the next climb all together and by half way through the first lap I was surprised to see that majority of the group was still all together. The whole race, people were fighting for position boxing each other out getting aggressive trying not to go down. Going by on the second lap I grabbed my feed bottle but missed my bottle I was supposed to dump on myself. I looked back and there was still a lot of guys behind me but I knew going into the first single track that there was going to be an attack that would break us up. I knew I was too far back in the group to be able to react and I knew I was but it was too late for me to move up in the group. Sure enough the attack went and I was too far back behind a couple people that didn’t even try to go with the attack and I had to fight around them and try to catch a couple other of the stragglers to work with them to catch back up to the lead group. I cought a few of them and we worked together but never cought the lead group. The rest of the lap the three of us worked together to keep the people behind us there and trying to gain on the people in front of us.

At the start of the next lap we were all hurting and trying to stay with it to not get cought. Nothing exciting happened that lap exept a lot of pain. The last lap on the other hand was really tough and full of attacks from every person all trying to get that little edge to get away. Every little attack, every climb was excruciating and it was all I could do to stay with the other rider. I got through a couple of the tough pitches and headed towards the last few climbs o the course. At the climb before Marine Core hill I was infront and stayed infront until we got to the top of Marine Core where he passed me really quick before going into the final decent. He got a little bit of a gap on the decent and by the time we got to the finishing stretch he was just a little too far for me to sprint past. I ended the day in eighth place which I was happy with due to not feeling good that morning.