He
re is Maureen's XC race report:I knew very little about the course today--I heard there was a long climb, a flattish section at the top, and a long singletrack descent. At the starting line I lamented that I didn't know more about the starting climb.
The men and women started together, which meant the pace would be high. From the gun I went all-out, following a bunch of guys and taking the early lead for the women. The course started with a paved road and quickly turned to massively-wide, beautifully-groomed fire road with a very gentle grade (but we were definitely going up!). I played some roadie games, working on my wheel-sucking (definitely a tactic that I generally loathe). After 25 minutes of pushing myself, a train of 3 women came up beside me. I jumped aboard and felt fairly comfortable holding their pace.
The leader of the train, Amber from Reno, was climbing like a beast! She led the entire climb and seemed content to hold her blistering pace for days. She casually accelerated a few times, and dropped us all for a bit. I played yet more roadie games, using a guy's passing wheel as a bridge back to her. It worked, but I was feeling a little unsure if I would be able to hold the pace, which had elevated my heartrate up to a scary 190 bpm. The climbing continued as the route turned into a fun singletrack that had several steep pitches. Amber was STILL killing it, and I was barely holding on. Finally we saw some officials on the trail, which meant we had reached the top of the climb! Hurray, I thought.But to my dismay, the roadie-ness continued as a big group of guys convened at the top of the climb. Amber joined the fray and they all started motoring on the flattish road that was so nicely maintained I can't call it a fire road. I tried to stay with them, but I couldn't quite bridge the gap because my HR had reached 192 and I thought I was going to implode. I was bummed when they sped away, leaving me in no-man's land to ride with only my own two legs. I didn't want to get caught by the #3 woman! Eventually someone came up behind me and said "Hey Mo, do you have a GU??" It was Geoff to t
he rescue! I saved him with a GU, and got on his wheel. He was leading the singlespeed race. He rode impressively fast for only having one gear. I took a few pulls but Geoff did the lion's share of the work--he is my hero. It was really fun to have a teammate out there to work with on the endless road from hell.After 45 mintues on this road, we FINALLY hit the descent. FINALLY we hit some singletrack, some actual mountain biking! We descended a beautiful trail on a steep, forested hillside. About 1/2 mile into the 6-mile descent I caught Amber!! I couldn't believe it. She let me by and I worked to keep my head together as I descended this trail for the first time. Geoff knew the trail very well; I followed him until we hit the lower part that had a lot of jumps and rutted switchbacks...we were now on the downhill course. I slowed down a bit since I haven't yet mastered the jumping thing. But I safely made it through to the bottom and rolled in for 1st place in the Women's Overall!! It was a dramatic finale to an epic fitness test!
Geoff took 1st in the singlespeed division, Emma got 9th overall, and Matt got 14th in Pro Men.
Congrats team!
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