Tech Devo Pro XCT

Utah! After taking my AP Statistics exam Thursday afternoon I drove home, finished packing up my bike and luggage and headed to the airport. After a direct 2.5 hour flight to Salt Lake City I grabbed my bike bag and met Jeff Bender outside. Two years ago on a big road trip with my coach Joe Maloney and Carter Warren, the three of us stayed with Jeff and his roommates while passing through. When I nailed down my season schedule I hit up Jeff to see if he could host me for the weekend and he had me covered!

Friday morning I built up my bike and around noon Jeff and I drove the 45 minutes to Soldier Hollow in Midway. There I linked up with Paul Fabian and my teammate Brian Matter to ride a few laps of the xc race course. It was a good mix of single track climbing, fast fun descents, rocky technical sections and fun features to send it off of.  Afterwords Jeff and I headed back to Salt Lake for dinner and bike prep for the next day's short track race.

Saturday morning I did the skills challenge which contributed points to the overall omnium. It consisted of five challenges, each worth 10 points for a max score of 50. You lost points for each mistake you made and I ended up with 37. After that I watched the pro women and men race short track, where Brian finished 5th in a sprint.

Since my short track race was only 15 minutes plus three laps I did my usual warm up for a cyclocross race to get my legs ready for the intensity. We started at the bottom of a narrow pavement climb that went up to where the first single track section was. I started third row on Paul's wheel and after they blew the whistle we sprinted up the climb jostling for positions. Paul and I were third and fourth wheel into the single track, perfectly positioned. 

The two of us worked together to control our positions the whole race and not let anyone take our prime spots. Almost every lap someone would attack up the pavement start climb and we marked those attacks not letting anyone get away. The whole race I was taking mental notes on my strengths and weaknesses on the course compared to other riders. I noticed that after the single track downhill everyone backed off and recovered through the multiple tight twisty turns. 

Going into the third to last lap I rolled up on the inside corner of the group taking the lead for the first time, into the single track. I decided to accelerate hard out of all the tight twisty corners cyclocross style and see how the other riders reacted. After I came back into the long open section I saw I had five second gap. I thought to myself, "Well, I guess I'm going!" Coming through the finish banner Brian was yelling at me to "hit it," confirming that I'd made the right move. I went full throttle those last two laps absolutely gassing myself to hold off the pack of riders chasing hard. I was totally cross-eyed, nauseous, and could hardly steer my bike on the final lap but I knew I had the win!

After I crossed the line I pretty much collapsed from exhaustion. Some bike racers like to get a little over dramatic when they cross the line and flop all over the place. For me it was the first time I'd ever gone so hard that I honestly just needed to lay down!

What made things even better was that Paul won the field sprint for second! It kind of felt like winning a criterium using perfect team tactics and controlling things the whole race, which was pretty much what we did.

After podium Paul, Cal and I spun back to the house that the Arizona Devo crew had rented for the weekend. Once Brian, TJ Woodruff and the rest of group got back we fired up the grill and whipped up a full scale burrito feast which was quickly followed by organizing for the next day and bed time.

Sunday's cross country race was bright and early at 9:00am which meant I was up at 6:30 and out the door at 7:30. I jumped straight into my warm up, took my Honey Stinger gel, and lined up third row on the far left side.

Photo: Kenny Wehn

When they blew the whistle my goal was to move up as much as possible on the start straight. I charged up on the left side following another riders wheel. We were off the pavement, on the gravel and we got closer to the finish I realized our our line was ending into the fencing and we needed to get in front or risk jumping laterally over the curb into the pack. I shouted to the rider in front of me to hit it and luckily he understood, pulling the two of us safely right up to the front.

Photo: Kenny Wehn

As we continued up the first series of climbs I tried to maintain my position but my legs and lungs just weren't having it. I dropped back a few spots to outside the top ten and stayed there holding onto the another riders wheel for dear life not wanting to end up solo. Going into the second lap my legs started to feel a little bit better but every time things got steep I felt my effort from the day before.

I started to work my way back up a few spots and settled into a group of three other riders going back and fourth with them for 1.5 laps. Part way through the fourth lap I lost contact with the group and my pace slackened a little bit. My body just didn't want to do the work but I kept on pushing trying not to lose any time to the riders behind me.

Photo: Kenny Wehn

Going into the last lap my legs felt better than they had in the previous four laps and I kept on the pace seeing if I could make up any time. Most importantly I reminded myself that I was riding a mountain bike and that even though I was racing I should still be having fun! So, I made sure to rip all the fast downhill sections as hard as I could and was sure to hit all the jumps! I crossed the line in 11th place which was quite disappointing but I was still stoked to come away from the weekend with one win and ended up 2nd overall in the omnium.

 After the race Paul and I went for recovery ride up into the mountains shredding some sweet horse trails before it was time to head back for the pro men's race. I did bottle hand ups for Brian who had a seriously impressive ride. Starting sixth row he moved up over 40 spots closing huge gaps the whole race to finish 12th. After Brian finished I said my goodbyes and drove back Salt Lake with Jeff and flew out Monday morning at 7:00.

Already missing the mountains!

Huge thanks to Jeff Bender for hosting me for the weekend and helping my get to and from the races. Also big thanks to Brian Matter, TJ Woodruff, Kenny Wehn and Monica Fabian for letting me borrow tent space, tools, and letting me crash with them Saturday night. It was great to hang out with Jeff and the Arizona crew and I can't wait to do it again!

Lastly thank you to Linear Sport, Trek Bikes, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration, and David Hobbs Honda, as well as Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Englewood Grass Farm, Wolf Tooth Components and ESI Grips for helping make it all happen!