September 11, I participated in the 2nd XC race since I have lived in Tennessee. The race was hosted at Montgomery Bell state park in Dickson, Tn. This venue was awesome and the race directors did an A+ job hosting the event. I recently bought a Niner one 9 frame and couldn't wait to test out my new steed at race pace! I am gearing up for some long fall/winter races, so I entered the SS race as well as the Cat 1 race and raced the Cat 1 race SS as well. My poor Orbea will be in pieces for awhile while I recover from a 1000 detuctible due to a car accident(doh!).
So to the race... The fun thing about moving to a new area is everything is foreign to you. I am just now learning who the local badasses are... and obviously i'm gunning for them! I planned to go all out during the 2 lap SS race and cruise at an endurance pace for the Cat 1 race. The local badass SS guy is Travis Book, I believe he is a professional musician and def one hell of a cyclist. He went out hard from the gun and I knew it would be him or I to take the win. I followed him into the woods and was amazed at how smooth his lines were. I def used some of his lines the rest of the day being I was doing 5 laps, Im all about conserving energy. Coming into a techy uphill section called "tommys revenge" Travis rode this section ridiculously smooth, I didnt get much preride in at the trails so I was skeptical of this section, knowing it would split the group if we were all together. We both cleared it like champs and after riding his wheel through this I was beginning to worry that he was gonna have an edge as a local. I thought I would test my legs so on the longest climb of the course I punched it hard at the base and Travis didnt have much response. Travis is a natural, he doesn't get to train as much as alot of other people he has to race, and god help us if he could. I ended up taking the win in the SS race and got dead last in the Cat 1 race. I wasnt too worried about the second race, I knew I wouldn't be a threat to anyone... I hung in there for about half a lap and tinkering off for the last two and put it on cruise control. Overall, it was a good time and I'm really enjoying my time in Nashville. Everyone is super nice and hopefully moving here will only make me stronger! Next up is 12 hours of the canal loop in Kentucky on the 24th. Stoked. Never done a MTB race of this stature SS so I'm pretty excited to see how I do. If all goes well, Im contemplating doing my 24hr in Nov SS as well.
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