Mississippi MTB Racer: US Cup/SERC 3 Conyers, GA

well this race went better than Tsali, so i would say mission accomplished. build up for the last 3 weeks was good and i have had some solid workouts including a tune up race last SUnday. i wasnt worried about results as much as i was hoping for some good legs and a solid performance.

Saturday started a little later than normal due to me wanting to watch Carter play his baseball game but by 1p local time, I had swapped cars with George, picked Jerry up, and were headed east. We drove straight to the course and suited up for a quick pre ride. the plan was an ez loop to loosen up the legs and then a second loop with a few hard efforts thrown in for good measure. the course was a blast. lots of variety...start was a wide open, long straight away which brought you into the first flowing sections of trails. the trail were so much fun to ride..smooth and fast with lots of hard packed sections. after about 4miles of flowing stuff, the course popped you out on a flat field section that brought you back close to the parking lot and dropped you under a bridge and on to the granite rock. this was the hardest part of the course and where i would lose contact with both groups i rode with. HARD! fun...but hard to race on.

starting time is always a little stressful

Sunday came fast and brought some killer weather with it. a little rain fell at night but didnt mess anything up. after a short warm up, i lined up with a good sized and strong group of wanna be pro's. i knew i had to race hard but be smart and not blow up. the gun went off and we were rolling. thankfully the start wasnt that fast and i was able to slot in the woods about 10th place. i was riding the singletrack much faster than a few guys in front of me, so i passed them as quickly as possible and keep my pace high. i bridged up to the lead group and stayed with them until the granite section.

dangling on chase group...Omar was way off the front by this time

Getting gaped on rock

i rode hard but lost about :20 and would roll solo thru lap one. i was joined by a couple other racers as i entered the woods and we would roll together for the next 2 laps. i felt comfy with these guys and knew that these are the guys i should be racing with. unfortunately, i was dropping a little on each climb and knew i would struggle on the last lap. i would get gaped a lil on the granite section and would actually end of rolling the entire 4th lap solo. i was hurting and was starting to fade pretty fast and couldnt have been more happy to see the end of the race. i loved to course and thought it would be a good race for me. I had a more steady and consistent performance and was glad to see some ok lap times. the results wasnt great but better. the compo seems to have gotten much more stiff and dudes are just riding fast! love it...