Steve & I loaded up the truck and headed for Salmon Arm on Friday. We arrived in good time and spent the night hanging out and catching up with Shaun who finally arrived from Rossland.
We met up with Dave & headed to the course for a pre-lap on Saturday morning. The course was in good shape and we had some fun out there. Spent the rest of the day hanging out in town meeting up with fellow racers. Back to the house where we were staying for some food and hanging out with the Deadgoat crew.
Race day was a little cooler and there had been a little rain over night, which would be good to keep the dust down. It started to rain lightly as we were getting everything set up at the race site. Before I knew it we were all heading down to the start line. As in the prior years it was a fast start with everyone trying to set a faster pace up the road climb to get into a good position for the first single track. It definitely was congested on lap #1 with a couple stops with the heavy traffic. It started to spread out as I hit the first road section. I came across Shaun on the first lap who was pulled off to the side of the trail. It turns out his seat post broke. I saw him again later in the lap as he hammered past me on the last climb before the final descent. I remember thinking that was just wrong to be passed by him with his saddle in his jersey pocket and no seat post!
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| The pits |
The next lap had a little more flow to it and turned out to be my fastest lap. After lap #2 I started to settle into my pace. I saw a number of Deadgoats along the way who were always very encouraging. It is always nice to suffer with your friends. As the race went on, the climbs at the beginning of the lap were definitely starting to feel challenging. I tried to just keep my head down and grind it out.
On lap #5 I had a crash on one of the descents. Nothing major I think just too much speed coming into a corner. I got up fairly quickly and a few guys checked in to make sure I was ok, which is always very nice. I stopped at the pit after the lap to adjust my brakes as they had moved from the crash. Back out for lap #6. I took an Infinit bottle with caffeine and a caffeine pill. I knew I would need a little extra jolt to keep the wheels turning.
The caffeine started to kick in as I went out for lap #7. I knew I would only have time for one final lap so I wanted to try and beat my time from last year. As it turned out that was not my only goal for the lap. I came across a few girls and not really knowing who was in my category my new mission was to try to pass as many as I could. I was setting a pretty good pace up the climbs and thought if I could stay ahead there I would probably be ok. I rode the final descent as quick as I could. Coming into the final part which had some tight corners and really no passing opportunities, I could feel some pressure on my wheel. I asked if the person wanted to pass. The guy said yeah it would be good when you have a chance. I was thinking really there is no where for me to go. He started to say Deadgoat and some other stuff. It turns out it was Dave on my back wheel just messing around with me. We came into the finish together which was cool.
In the end the final lap was the most important. I dug deep and passed two girls in my category securing 2nd place in my category and 3rd overall for women. I was only just over 1 minute ahead of 3rd place. This race taught me you always have to race to the end because you never know what is happening out front or behind. Overall a good race with 7 laps, 71.5km, 8540 ft gain and beating last year's time by 2 minutes.
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| Hand made medals |
Dave ended up winning his category and Steve nailed it with a 3rd place finish in his category! This is so impressive since Steve is just getting back into racing this year with all of his eye surgeries last year. I was so proud! A number of Deadgoat podiums and Shaun still managed to bang out 6 laps with no seat post!
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| This picture says it all! Rick & Steve finishing = hard work, good times and team! |
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| Dave, Steve & I |
