Prescott 6'er

                The season has pretty much rapped up for me, but there are still a few races that I can’t pass up. The Prescott 6’er was one of them. Although this is a young event, I have heard great things about the course and knew it would be well run with Hub Event Productions at the reigns.

                My dad and I drove down the morning of the race to be greeted with a venue full of Flagstaff locals and many of my AZ Devo teammates. The atmosphere was chill, perfect for this time of the year. We set up my pit and chilled for a while awaiting the 9 am start time. Hopped on my bike about twenty minutes to just to get the legs opened a little bit, they felt solid, which got me excited to go! I got on the front line along side my teammates Dilyn Sheber and Ian Wilkey and stood there for what seemed like a long time. I didn’t mind though, just hung out and had some laughs.

                Finally the race started, I got the holeshot  and kept the pace fast through the venue. There was a four mile start lap which consisted of a few minute climb and then pretty much the last third of a full lap. My legs felt good off the start so I decided to take advantage of it and held a strong tempo up the first climb. By the top Kurt Refsnider and I had a gap, which we held going into the first full 9.1 mile lap.

                For the first few laps Kurt and I traded pulls, he is a great rider, it was really fun to ride with him. Always an honor to ride with a Tour Divide Champion! We stayed together until the third lap, where about half way through I got a little gap. When I realized this I stepped up the pace to solidify my lead. After I was on my own I settled in and rode hard.

                Lap after lap my legs felt good, I tried to rest on the descents and attack the climbs as hard as I could. The course was really fun, which helped me push through the hours. There was lots of cool singletrack along with some wider stuff which allowed me to keep downing my Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem and Hammer Gels.  Keeping fueled was the key to my success for sure; I only cramped once the entire race!

                I knew going into my eighth lap that I had to make it back before three, the cutoff time, to get in a ninth. Legs still felt awesome so I attacked the lap. Pushed it hard, shredded the descents, and really felt the flow. I got in at 2:53, grabbed my nutrition, and headed back out. At this point I knew I had won, I knew Kurt couldn’t go out again so I went out and cruised. Really enjoyed that last lap, got to ride with my teammate Nick Thomas for a while. He was still riding really strong, holding his fourth place position in the Solo class. I came across the finish, completely stoked with my performance. I had ridden well and had a lot of fun out there.

 

 

                Awards were quickly after the event where I got on the podium for the win in the Solo category. I also got the fastest lap and had the most laps overall! It was great to see my other teammates riding well. As I mentioned Nick had a great ride to fourth in the solo race while Daisy Ward and her teammate Leah McCabe won the Duo Women’s race. Dilyn and Ian also raced duo with their dads and both placed in the top ten!

              I would like to thank Mike Melley and the Hub Event Productions Crew for a great event! I will definitely be back at this event next year. Also I would like to thank AZ Devo , Nathan Cain and the Flagstaff crew, along with my dad for all the help in the pits. As always my Hammer Nutrition fueled me throughout the day, couldn’t do these things without it!