Intermountain-Cup #1: Red Rock Madness

 Red Rock Ruckus

February 26, 2022,

    What an amazing experience it was to spend a weekend riding and racing out in Utah. Seeing new trails in new areas is the best experience ever. This weekend, I got to race I-cup #1 in St. George, Utah. Some tough racing with the difference and altitude as well as having trails with different terrain. I woke up around eight o'clock and had a good egg sandwich with a bagel and some slices of lunch meat, I do have to admit, it was a pretty tasty meal to start the race day. After arriving at the race venue roughly ten-thirty, I had about two hours to look over any last-second bike adjustments and to mentally prepare myself before my race starts at around twelve-thirty. At twelve o'clock, I started my warm-up. Note for self to start the warm-up sooner. By the time I finished, I had about fifteen minutes until the start of my race. Which proved to be not enough time for a good staging for the race start. My varsity field was split into two different waves. Not only was I in the second wave, but I was also starting eight rows back. Not good. 

    After the start of the race, we went through a fire road where I was hoping to make up some spots. That, however, did not happen. Approaching the first single track, I had a lot of catching up to do. I weaved through traffic whenever I was able to pass safely and found myself within the top five of my field about halfway through the first lap. Where I saw my teammate, Jordan Porter, right in front of me. "Hey, Jordan, how many guys are up [off the front]". He replied "Two". At this point, I knew I was back in contention. I see Jordan point at a rider ahead wearing a tank-top and jean shorts. "That's our next guy!" He told me. By the end of the lap, I caught the rider in unique attire. At this point, I knew I was close to the front. So I decided to sit in for a lap. 

    After another lap of navigating through the traffic of multiple races. I asked the rider I was with as we started our last lap. "Hey man, how many guys are ahead?". "Two" he replied... Great... Just great. With how many people we were catching and passing, there was no surefire way to know who was in our race and who was not. So I decided to get back in the pain cave and see how much time I could make on the guys ahead. About three-quarters of a lap later, I was weaving through more traffic as I approach a middle-aged man in an off-camber, single-track descent. I let him know I was behind him, as I hear a rock roll on the trail. "Uh oh," I thought, as my front wheel hit the rock mid-turn. Next thing you know, I was on the ground. Thankfully, I was not hurt too badly, as I got back up and kept riding within seconds of falling. Time was lost, but not much. I kept trucking along the rest of the course as I approach roughly the last mile. In a double-track opening, I see a rider sprinting around me as if I were stopped. I was not willing to let this guy go this close to the finish. After a bit of power output, I caught the rider as we approached the finishing straight. The finishing straight was painfully long, which made the final sprint more strategic than any normal course. I had to sit in for a bit to avoid the massive headwind hitting us. However, when the finish was close enough, I managed to put another power spike and drag race the rider to the finish. The sprint ended in my prevail. 

    This was a race where I felt really good, just my starting hand was not how I would have liked it to be. The race results were based on time, which gave the leaders in the first wave an advantage because of the little amount of traffic they had to deal with. Nevertheless, even after all the mess in this race, I snuck into fifth place. Overall, the race went well aside from the start and the traffic. I was ecstatic about how I felt about this race. Keeping my hype up for the rest of my season.