We arrived on Friday afternoon. Headed out on a preride right away with Shea Chavez, who is now racing for Pivot Cycles. It felt amazing to be in the Phoenix sun, even to get hot, after being up in the colder temperatures of Flagstaff. The course was in great shape, there were even a few new berms that had been added to one of the smaller loops. The backside of the long loop, Southridge, was nice and rocky which is always a fun part on a relatively fast and smooth course. My legs felt great and all in all I was extremely excited to race. The only thing left to do before the race was to rest and put in a few laps on the pump track that was 50 feet away from our trailer.
Saturday morning I woke up ready to go. I was excited, but kept focused on dialing in my pre race morning preparations that I will transfer over to some of the bigger races later in the season. As I put on my Pissei Clothing I got an instant boost of confidence. Wearing comfortable and rad looking kits always gets me stoked. Its going to be a great to always get that feeling as I get dressed out, now that I have the best in Italian comfort and style with my Pissei Clothing.
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Some of the Pissei Clothing that I will be wearing for the season!
After a good warm up and catching up with some of the riders on AZ Devo I headed to the line. I got a good position, shifted to the right gear and was ready to go. The minutes flew by on the start line, before I knew it the countdown had started... 3, 2, 1, Go!!!!!
I sprinted hard off the start line, making sure I would get the holeshot into the single track. I quickly settled into a solid pace up the short climb right after the start. To my surprise, by the top of the climb, there were only three of us. Lance Runyan, TJ Woodruff, and I proceeded to lengthen our gap over the rest of the field throughout the lap. I sat at the front for the entirety of the first 10 mile loop. I wanted to test out my legs and see how the other guys would respond to little accelerations I would do. I felt strong and was planning on opening it up on the second lap.
We rolled into the second lap all still together, I was feeling stronger than I did at the beginning of the lap and was ready to start throwing down. TJ took the lead on one of the fast headwind sections so I took time to recover. After about 10 minutes of sitting on I decided to go right before one of the more rocky and technical parts of the course. I checked back often to see the gap getting larger and larger. I felt relieved getting to the top of Southridge, the most technical part of the course, with a gap. I knew I could put more time on the other guys on this section, so I pushed hard. Unfortunately a few minutes into Southridge I heard the horrific sound of air and Stans spewing from my rear tire. I hopped off and shot my tire up with my CO2. I got back on, hoping that it would seal up but it didn't. At that point I knew I would have to put a tube in. I pulled off to the side and started on the repair as I watched Lance and TJ rocket by.
I put in the tube quickly and got back going, hoping that I could possibly fight my way back to those guys...to my disbelief less than a quarter mile later I had to deal with a broken chain. By the time I was done fixing the chain quite a few racers had passed me and I was definitely ready to race off some frustration. I attacked hard and passed every guy I saw. In the process I put down the fastest Sport Loop of the day to go along with my fastest Long Loop of the day. I managed to work my way back into third position before crossing the line.
Although I was frustrated to have had the problems I did, I was thankful that they had happened at this race and not one of the many other races later in the year. I felt accomplished in knowing that I felt extremely good for this time of year, giving me even more inspiration to work hard towards the next few races. Although it might not have been the result I was hoping for, I took more from this race than most of the wins I have. I had a great time racing with TJ and Lance, both extremely good guys on and off the course! Stoked to have more battles with them throughout the rest of the season.
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