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2/15-17/2019 - Valley of the Sun Stage Race - Phoenix, AZ

2/23/2019 - NorCal League Race #1 - Marina, CA

3/16-17/2019 - U.S. Cup Bonelli XC/STXC - Los Angeles, CA

3/23-24/2019 - U.S. Cup Vail Lake XC/STXC - Temecula, CA

3/30/2019 - NorCal League Race #3 - Monterey, CA

4/14/2019 - Sea Otter Classic XC - Monterey, CA

Further racing to be posted at a later date.

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  • Writer's pictureNathan Davis

NorCal League Race #3 "Back at the Fort" - Fort Ord, CA - March 24th, 2018



Saturday morning, 07:30:

Ah, loading the bike onto the car on a bright and early morning, with the sun just peeking

over the hills in the distance. Driving over to the race start and pulling into a parking lot of dry dirt. Eating warm oatmeal with nothing but a thin coat on. Hopping on my bike, pedaling around cheering on the Varsity Girls. Peeling off my thin coat as the temperature slowly rises. Throwing my "A" kit and putting a leg over my bike as I head out of the pit zone to warm up.


*SCENE CHANGE*


Saturday morning, 11:45:

Rain and wind - It was cold. Race start was in about 30 minutes. I warmed up for longer than I normally would, hoping to keep my legs firing so that I would be able to move up quickly at the start. I finished my warm up, quickly changed my gloves and lenses and rode over to the line.

Try as I might to start in the front couple lines, I was sent to mid pack due to my lack of series points, since I had raced the first race in Junior Varsity, pre-petition. They pulled us up and connected us behind the call-ups and counted down for the race start. I ripped off my rain jacket, tossed it to Hannah (good thing I don't play baseball, it could have been a better toss!) and listened as the countdown started. 5...4...3...2...1...Go!

I promptly moved to the right and took a line the first 45 seconds or so that moved me up about 15 places or so. I went into the top of the whole shot sitting about 12th wheel with

moving up being the foremost thought on my mind at that moment. Right after the first downhill, it started hailing. Yes. It was hailing.

We turned the corner and headed up the first kicker of the lap, moving underneath some tree cover. Once we popped out of the trees, there was no more hail to be seen (or felt) and we continued up the low-grade climb. The next couple laps were full of crashes in the field along with puddles and mud pits. We started more-or-less clean, and ended the first lap looking like this:

At the point of crossing the line for lap 3, I was sitting 4th wheel.

Slowly throughout the first two laps, people were falling of the group all over the place and by mid-third lap, the front group was down to five of us. The positions changed quite often and as we headed for fourth lap, the rider sitting fifth wheel fell off the group. The front four of us picked up the pace throughout the last lap, and Noah Hayes and Max McFadden made sure to sprint up anything that was possibly sprintable. With less than two minutes to go, Roberto Cribley (sitting 3rd wheel) and I got separated from the top two riders.

I sprinted through the s-turns that led to the final downhill, trying to bridge up to the

riders that were only a few seconds up the trail. I turned for the final corner to see Noah Hayes leading Max McFadden with Roberto Cribley near behind. I finished a few seconds back from the three and crossed the line with four fingers in the air and a body covered in mud.

I am happy to take 4th in Varsity though I am hungry with motivation to pull a better result at the next race of the NorCal High School series - the "Granite Bay Grinder" in Folsom! However, not before heading down to Fontana and lining up for the first race of the U.S. Cup Series in a couple weeks!



Photography: Sebastian Villanueva, Kip Evans (Mountain and Sea Productions) and Tim Madding

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