Brian Head 06'

One more National in the books this weekend, and one step closer to the series finals this coming weekend in Aspen. Blake, Wink, and I left early Thursday morning for Brian Head ski resort in southern UT. The drive was long and the music selection questionalble at times, but upon arrival, sluggish legs and ringing ears were soon forgotten as the mountains took over my attention.oh, and the snacks were supreme. First on the list was to drop off Blake and Wink at the top f the mountain so they could get in a pre ride of the course before there race Friday. If you thought racing Park City was tough, try adding another 3,000 ft. or so and dropping another 8% off your VO2 max. The trails up there are amazing, but its hard to keep focused when your brain is lacking such essentials as, say, oxygen.Friday was a pretty melo day, as planed. slept late, watched some cartoons, and did some off roading on the way to the top feed zone. The semi's race went so-so. neather of them had great legs on the day, but they rode smart and finished well considering.After a quick hike around the summit, it was a quick spin, a couple openers, and an early night.Saturday afternoon was the kick off of my XC. The lead up wasn't exactly ideal, with some nasty brake problems, leading to a change the morning of. Thanks to Lyle for hooking me up with the brake off his hard tail. The race starts up a long paved to dirt, 13% avg, 30 min climb. They started us in mass and the pace was fast right off the line. Things didn't go too great on the climb, and a group of 20 or so pulled away pretty quick. I got a little nervous when I saw a HR of 188 less than 10 minutes into the race. Things settled out, and I found my rhythm by the top. After cresting that first climb, everything seemed to click, and no one else came by the rest of the day. It was an intense 2 hours of picking people off one by one for the rest of the race. The down hills were pure North East and I was coming up on riders faster than you can say, "Um, please move!" At te end of the day, I finished up 3rd, less than 30 seconds off 2nd. Sunday was all about the Short Track. Blake woke up at yesterday to race the marathon with all the big boys. He took a nice top 20, and later lined up for the STXC a few hours later. My race was early and I wasn't having any of it. After sleeping too late, eating too late, working on the bike to late, and warming up to lazy, I didn't really have it come race start. I went out at a steady pace, and thankfully so did the rest of the pack. Attacks started going after lap 3 and all I could do was sit on wheels and watch people chase. I was able to give it a little more towards the end and pulled pack a few more riders, giving Fred Dreier a Fred's eye view of my back side after I Fred's eye viewed him into the course tape. Sorry about that one. I managed to royally messed up the last lap and lost by a half a wheel to a Single Speed. If I could just have that one corner back... I ended the day 4th to make it a double podium for the weekend. Not too shabby I guess, but feels like it could have gone better. Next weekend is the last chance. Despite being down with a mystery illness, Sammy J took a 50$ pream on the first lap of the pro STXC. it was a nice flash back to see Sam back at the front of a Short Track for the first tie since our Junior days. Monday morning after packing up, headed out for some hiking around Brian Head. didn't wander too far out, but still managed to find some cool stuff. Not having any shoes was acceptable for the river walking, but on the 30% grade slag heaps, the pay less shoes didn't exactly cut it. things got pretty interesting at times. Good views, bad rest, and it was on the road again to back where we started.Time to rest up for a day and start it all over again. this time, Destination Colorado.And coming soon... Adirondacks!.... ( Brian Head 05' )