at the Hollow

Good to see Doug, Brady and Robbie are having fun in the not so cool Northwest. I need to make the journey someday to enjoy the great riding.

Yesterday was the MTB race at Soldier Hollow. It's always cool riding at an Olympic venue. However, my prior races there have been disasters. I've completely blown and finished way back. I was determined to have a good ride this year and things turned out well. I actually enjoyed myself and finished a competitive 6th in a very good field. I faded a bit on the last lap after I closed to less than a minute to BK, but it was a fun race. Bob had a super day and led start to finish. He beat me by close to 7 minutes. I'm happy for him. He deserved a good result.

Tanner had a really good day to finish 2nd. He was the strongest climber in the 16 - 18 experts, but lost time on the descents. It is deceptively hard to go fast downhill at Soldier Hollow. The kid that won, Keegan Swenson, is very good alpine ski racer and can go fast downhill. Tanner continues to improve and is a very good climber. I think he'll give Robbie, Sut and Bubba all they want on a road climb.

It's a busy time of the year for racing. This is the 4th Saturday in a row we've raced. There's races every week through the first week of July. I'm taking it one week at a time and trying to avoid going too deep. I hope to do some mid-week races either on the road, TT or mountain bike. However, recovery is the primary factor. If I'm feeling worked, I'll just focus on Saturdays. It's a good time of year to be a bike racer in Utah.