T-man and I had mechanical issues. Tanner suffered 2 flats and a broken spoke. He soldiered through the end but was understandably frustrated. The winner of his group had a very good day, but T would have been there competing without the bike issues.
My race for a championship lasted about a minute. The start was crazy with the A's, 35+ and 45+ all going together. It was a drag race to the first section of singletrack and I was sitting good. I was well within the top 10 overall, directly behind two teammates and a head of everyone I needed to be a head of. However, on the first sharp corner, I went too far inside, hit a hole and cut my rear tire. It lost all air immediately and I rode the rim to the pits. I had trouble with the bike exchange and came out of the pits in last literally 1/2 lap down on the leaders (and it was a long lap). So from that point on, it was a good training ride. I didn't see anyone for a few laps, but went very hard and eventually caught about half of the Masters field to finish 4th in the 45+. John McKone was flying in the 45+, so a win wasn't in the cards anyway. However, my engine was really good on Saturday, so it would have been nice to mix it up with the big boys.
Congrats to Dave on winning the 35+ State crown. I think he discovered a new pre-race plan. It goes like this. Spend all week in California, get about 3 hours of sleep Friday night, fly into SLC the morning of the race, have an upset stomach so you can't eat anything and warm up by slowly riding 1 lap. Then line up and let'r rip for the win.
Doug going hard through the barriers.
The highlight of my race, the start.
My expensive tubular rear tire. I'm no expert, but I think this is probably not good.
Doug had issues with my camera. It was on the video setting, so we have a number of video segments like this. Some funny stuff actually.
Next Utah race is in two weeks, so I'm be over my disappointment long before I line up again. Only three left and I'll be gunning for another win.
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