NORBA AZ

ok I'll skip the non racing stuff to save typing
TT was Friday afternoon, I just wanted to post a decent time and not lose too much on GC took off with out pre-riding which was kinda interesting because I couldn't really open it up because I didn't know what was coming, felt good but my heart rate was through the roof (I'm guessing it was because of the flight and lack of sleep) to my surprise I got 2nd by 5 seconds felt really good because I had plenty left in the tank. Found out who beat me too, a freaking 16 year old kid from CO? Cody Cox, pretty good but doesn't have the endurance for a cross country race

Super D was up the next day and I found out that I was the 3rd from last rider to start, not bad, I didn't think it would take that long to go through every body and I could do a quick pre-ride of the xc before the short track. I was wrong. I got up to the top at 3 and didn't go off until 5 (short track started at 6:40-I was a little pissed) to make matter worse they sent all the little 10 and 12 year olds off in front of me, so here I am blasting down the mountain trying to avoid running over our future cross country stars
again I didn't go really hard, more worried about the ST and XC, took no risks and rolled in 3rd-another surprise

I didn't even get undressed or picked up my medal after the Super D just drove straight to the ST. It was mostly in this really rocky field with some small whoop dee dos and a long slightly uphill finishing straight on pavement, I decided to switch to my cross tires (Kwicks) for speed-by the way I got the wheels in time but could carry any Stan's on the plane and couldn't find anybody who was selling it cheep either. The race started pretty fast but there were only 9 guys and non of them were really any good- Cody did not race saving his legs for Sunday. Neither did Ethan Gilmore. I waited till about 10 minuets in and I could tell that I was opening gaps on the rough stuff even with my tires so I put in a dig at about 8min to go and soloed the rest of the way

XC- ok I saved everything for this race, put on the new wheels, felt pretty good and I was sitting 2nd on GC 6 seconds behind Cody (the ST didn't count to the overall). I didn't to completely take off from the start so I got into the single track 2nd and sat on this guy's wheel for 3 or 4 miles (10 mile loop done 3 times) until he crashed on a corner and I took over, I had no idea where I was going so I figured that I'd just set my own pace and follow the next guy who passed me. I could hear them behind me with a little gap so I rode tempo on the next climb, a little more gap rode tempo again-they popped so I had no idea where I was going, I had no one to draft, and I didn't want to be out front this early so whadda do? Put my head down and went. Rolled through feed with about a 90sec lead and just as I left I felt the front go a little soft.
take a break while I tell about my flats-I knew there was a good chance I'd flat since I didn't have any Stan's so I built up a spear set of wheels, I had about 10 tubes, about that many CO2s in the feed zone and had a CO2 and a tube on my bike
so I figured that I could run it till went completely flat and put a whole CO2 and sprint to the feed zone switch wheels and put in a really fast last lap, it started going really flat about 5 minuets later so I hopped off stuck the CO2 on there and pressed the trigger and...nothing happened-there was no air in the CO2. So after that I was screwed, and I thought I was a lot further on the trail than I was so I kept on walking around the course-I ended up walking for 2 hours to the Start/Finish and I still had another lap to do. I had the overall locked up too. Bummer.

the good thing is that everybody knows who would have really won, punks-I was the only one who dnfed
oh yeah check this out: my average heart rate was 160-that includes about 5 minuets of walking so bump it up to 165. My average was just a little harder than a endurance ride max was 186 and my ride time was like 1.10.37
needless to say, I had plenty left in the gas box

so they haven't come out with results for the overall and I didn't look, so I think Cody might have pulled it off he was about 2 or 3 mins back on the first lap but he could have had enough cushion to take it
Ethan had a really bad day finished 30 or 45 mins back from the winner (who was a downhiller) he stopped to keep me company for a little bit
In the end I had a totally suckful XC race, I got beat by a friggen downhiller and a 16 year old. Arrrgggg. Just wait till VT.