Sierra Vista Maneuvers (MBAA race #5)

Hello again,

Newsreport from the 5th Arizona State Mountain Bike Championships Series. This time my travels headed almost as south as you can travel in AZ. The race was held at an ARMY base in Sierra Vista close to the Mexican border. I had been fortunate to get a ride down to the race with two of my friends Josh Powers and Scott Keller. It was a nice drive and I was hoping I would have better luck than I did at the last race. What happened during the last race I took part in was unfortunate, but I had put that all behind me.

We arrived in Sierra Vista the day before our race so that we could pre-ride the course. I didn't feel very good during the pre-ride. It was very hot and I hadn't quite got used to the heat, I think. I drank lots of fluid and took it easy on the technical sections. I tried to memorize the difficult sections as well as I could, since I knew the course in race speed could get dangerous.

Anyways...

to the raceday.

Raceday came and I felt very relaxed and good. As the startsignal went off so did all the pros in the field. I usually have good and quick starts but not today. I felt like I didn't have any explosive power at all.

I had a bad start. I was around 10th position and was trying to make it up to the lead. I knew it would be good to be in the lead heading into the tight singletrack. I made it up to third position and stayed comfortable in that position. I thought Brian Matter would be my main contender so I tried to closely follow him. Unfortunately Brian had a flat tire on the first lap and so I moved into the lead. I stayed in the lead for most of the race but started fading towards the end. My travelling friend, Scott Keller, seemed to have a great finnish and passed me finnishing first. Good for him!

Brian once again showed his strength and passed me even with the flat he had had previously. I ended up in third position. Happy to be on the podium and earning a little bit of cash. But a little dissappointed that I hadn't felt a little stronger today. But things don't always match perfectly...I am looking forward to the next races and hope to find a little more explosiveness next time around.

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