Race day

I told the kids to go easy at the start since they hadn't ridden or raced in a long time, and as it turned out that was probably not the best advice. It saved their legs and they felt good in the latter portions of the race, but in the beginning they were bottlenecked behind slower riders and couldn't pass.

Kiersten said that the climbs were especially burdensome early in the race because slower riders from other classes walked the climbs and she had to ride off line to pass them, which was extraordinarily difficult at times. That explained why at the 3/4 mark I had Kiersten 12 minutes back from the leader and at the finish she was only around 6 minutes back.

I and some other spectators were watching the racers at the exit to the Vortex when we heard a tree limb break and come crashing down. We looked back and it appeared to have fallen away from the trail, but not five minutes later Kees comes storming through, takes the line over the tree (another tree) and upon the exit took the right-side line and lo-and-behold crashed into the huge limb that had fallen on the trail!

Since everyone else took the lower line no one encountered the limb and I felt so bad to have not checked it out and moved it. He got up though, dragged his bike to the other trail and soldiered on, no worse for the wear.

Regardless of their on-course adventures, the kids had a blast, the course was fantastic, the weather was perfect, the organization was extraordinary, and over 600 racers enjoyed it all.