There it is! That lit­tle sign of fit­ness show­ing through.
I love it.

Con­di­tions were per­fect for a Memo­r­ial day bike race. Draper trails are great, and after a few days of off and on rain show­ers, the sun was shining.

As usual, dur­ing my pre-race warm up, the legs weren’t giv­ing out too much infor­ma­tion as to what the day would hold. That’s pretty typ­i­cal though, so I wasn’t wor­ried. I just wanted to pull through with a solid race and find the the bit of fit­ness that was hope­fully ling­ing inside.

As the race started, the pro mens field sped up the first rise. The crowds were cheer­ing, bells were ring­ing and some­one yelled “try harder, KDAY” I love’d it. As we rolled into the start of the climb, I had made my way into sec­ond place, just off Bryson Perry’s wheel. He was putting down a pretty fast pace and I knew it was going to be tough to hang on. I tried, but knew it wouldn’t last long. Bryson began to put a lit­tle more time into me around every cor­ner. I set­tled in to a decent pace try­ing to keep my dis­tance between the rest of the field. Near the top of the climb, Reed Wycoff was on my wheel and also push­ing a quick pace. Reed’s got a big engin. If you ever get a chance to hold onto it and you can, con­sider your­self in good company.

By the time we hit the DH on the Rush trail, Reed had about 20 sec. on me. It wasn’t long for me to notice my rookie mis­take of not enough air in my front tire. For most courses it would have been ideal, but the Rush trail is full of high speed berms, jumps and tight com­pres­sions. I laid off the gas a bit and nursed it all the way down. Quinn Bing­ham, Chris Hol­ley and I were all together at the bot­tom of the descent as we rolled into lap #2.

We passed through the feed­zone where my dad was hand­ing bot­tles. He must have known… he hap­pen to have his floor pump avail­able so I pulled off to add some air. I now had to work a lit­tle harder to catch Quinn and Chris. They’re bot excep­tional rides. It wasn’t easy but I was able to bridge to Quinn and jump back into fourth place. The sec­ond time on the DH was much bet­ter and a bit faster. At the bot­tom there was only about 20 sec. between Chris and myself. Quinn was also right on my tail.

I tried my best to reel Chris in, but he was also up ahead, push­ing hard to avoid us catch­ing him. In the end, Chris got the bet­ter of Quinn and I for the third spot on the podium. I was able to hold Quinn off, but not by much. It was a great race in all aspects. Tight com­pe­ti­tion, great course (minus the trail in the weeds down by the rail road tracks) and great weather.

I’m pretty happy with fourth, mainly because I felt good through­out the race and I think it’s a sign of bet­ter things to come. So, here’s to the rest of the sea­son. Let’s hope it con­tin­ues to get bet­ter and remains just as fun.