Sol Survivor-Mountain States Cup Solvista

Went up to Solvista for 3 laps of "fun" on last year's MTB National XC course Sat. The quick was that it was over 5,200' of climbing and right around 3 hrs of getting beat to death. The race headed out with 12 Pro men straight up on a road for a bit to sort things out quickly. Ended up 3rd or so rolling into the singletrack and was quickly joined by Mike West and another Yeti rider. We chased up the gravel and turned into the final bit of technical singletrack climbing sitting in 4th place I believe. After going over the top, Mike quickly caught on and passed me where I put on chase for the remainder of the lap with another 500' or so of climbing on the "decent." Second lap went alright, largely riding by myself however I was able to reel in one of the guys in front that went off a little quick on the first lap. The third lap however was where things started to go backwards. My legs were a little cashed with the 1750' of climbing per lap starting to take their toll. Along with that, my back was starting to talk to me and of all things, my hands were feeling the worn grips of my bike and my front fork being about 5-10 psi high for this rough of a course. At any rate, I successfully limped over the final lap charging when I could, to hold onto 4th for the day. Felt completely cashed in once it was all done but it was a solid 3 hrs of racing which I haven't done for a while. After talking to the other guys, it sounded like everyone would have been more than happy with 2 laps!

In other news since the last post, last weekend was spent in the San Juans climbing Mt. Sneffels.




Doing a little off-roading


and some late August skiing