Deer Valley Race Reports

Here are my belated Deer Valley NORBA race reports! Today I should technically be at Nationals (the US National Championship), but with so much going on in my life right now I had to skip it (major house remodel starting Monday and Greg, Murphy and I will be nomads for a month).. Trestle may end up in boarding. Anyways, sounds like it's really hot up there and the course is pretty boring.. SOOO i will try to look on the bright side. Next stop Brian Head, UT NORBA. I love that place!

Ok, here are the race reports:

Cross Country: I felt pretty good at the start even though I had been sick for a few weeks and had a terrible showing on the east coast. We had a really bad crash at the start of the race (it was very loud and several girls went down). Fortunately I was able to get around falling riders without being taken down. I figured I was taken down at Fontana NORBA XC and then blocked in the STXC race the next day, so maybe I could be spared this time. I was in a pretty good position going up the first climbs, or at least I thought. Then I started getting passed by peopel who were trying to catch up after the crash. In any event, I was in a big pack of riders the whole first lap which made passing quite difficult. Had to make some passes in some tight situations and pray that I didn't get a flat from riding over sharp foliage! Half way through lap 2, my chain fell off.. also I didn't mention that I ended up with some shifting issues that caused me some time also... Anyways, my chain fell off and I come to find out the train I was in was actually very long and I watched 5-6 riders pass me. UGGH!!!!!!! That really frustrated me and I struggled to get back into the pack. I passed a few more riders and got back in the middle, but never back to where I was. On the 3rd lap, things spaced out more, and I started to feel dehydrated and had tummy issues. Climbing was uber painful and I felt like I didn't have the same power I had on the other laps. I had to remind myself I was JUST SICK and on antibiotics. Should be happy I could even race as I was. Also reminded myself we were at elevation, which this was only my 2nd elevation race of the year. I also found out recently that those who excell at elevation races, don't necessarily excell at sea level!! Makes sense I guess! In the end I finished 49th out of 67 who started the race. However only 60 finished... I was happy to stay with large groups and at least feel good enough to do some passing and felt in control on all of the decents. I love switchbacks! At the end of the race I felt TERRIBLE. My asthma reminded me that it exists as I was talking with Bert within minutes of finishing. Then my tummy screamed at me for 2 hours ..... Matt and I rode back to our condo along a great Park City bike trail system. I could barely drink my recovery drink I felt so terrible! Not even NERDS ROPE could fix it.

Short Track: I thought I was feeling good going into this race and thought I could do well.. had a long warm up along some great roads above Deer Valley, checked out the course a few times... Also the cloud cover appeared making it *less hot*, which also was a nice bonus. I had a pretty good start position in the middle, but then got stuck in a bottleneck and behind fallen racers on the technical climb section. I ended up having to get off the bike and in trying to get back on I kept getting bumped into. I lost several spots that I would not make up. It was a very short course, therefore making it hard to pass and hard not to get pulled quickly. I only survived 2 laps, which is my worst short track EVER (except for Vermont where I was sick and just did it for the points). After the race I felt like I did nothing! I really hope to do better and have a smarter race at Brian Head (both XC and STXC!)