Since she clinched the state championships in her age group she wanted to race up with the "big girls" on the full adult course. It's a competitive class, with the top three girls ranked number 1 (and she is also the reigning national champion), 2 and 3 in the country! They're all sweet girls and friends of her, though, so she was excited about racing with them.

She is tiny for her age and if the course doesn't have much climbing or technical sections and a lot of power sections she typically can't outrun the bigger girls... and this was definitely more of a power course.

Unbelieveably, though, she led the first part of the race which was a complete surprise to me, and then rode the first steep climb which two of the other girls walked. Shortly thereafter, though she began to pay for the high pace and dropped back. A mechanical then dropped her to fourth, and then at about the half-way point she also ran out of water!

She didn't give up, though, and passed the reigning national champion for third and set her eyes on catching second place.

Her brother had finished his race so we got to a vantage point where we could see her on a couple of different places on the course.

With 3 miles to go I calculated that she had a two minute deficit...

Then with 1 mile to go it was down to a one minute deficit...

And then she must have put the afterburners on because in the last mile she erased that one minute deficit and she almost caught the second-place girl at the line! On the final stretch to the finish line she was sprinting so hard her rear wheel was losing traction! She was scored 1 second behind her in third, but more importantly she erased a two minute deficit in less than 3 miles on the power section of the course with no climbs!

Although third matches her worst-ever finish, considering the competition and how much she enjoyed coming from behind she said it was one of her all-time favorite races!