Day 1:
Total ride time: 1:45 hours
Total ride: 15 miles
Total Vertical: N/A due to lift access
Day 1 Strava
Stage 1 Start
Stage 1: We started out with a flowy transfer to get to the top of stage 1. Despite that, I still felt cold and got off to a slow start. We started out with a long blue that was a lot of fun, although demanded a lot of the legs. The challenge was that it ended on a tight, technical trail. Both stage 1 and 3 started on a long, fast trail and ended on a really technical trail, which made it tricky to save enough gas to ride fast. NGL, I felt slow on this stage.
Stage place: 9/20
Stage 2: This stage was short but had a wacky mid section with some bridges and then these wood banked corners at the bottom. It was so short there wasn't a lot of space to make up time and it was forgettable.
Stage place: 10/20
Stage 3 Start
Stage 3: Stage 3 was the most demanding stage of the day by far - really rough top with a rock garden and a few constructed drops and then it spit us into a double black trail at the end. Unfortunately, someone had a crash that delayed the start for a while AND it started raining. To compound the challenge, I got a puncture flat about halfway through which was super frustrating. Luckily, I was running a Cush Core tire insert that enabled me to at least ride out the stage. I was able to get a new tire installed after the race in preparation for Sunday. I didn't lose a terrible amount of time, although it put 8th out of my reach and 10th was only about 15 seconds behind me. I had my work cut out to maintain a top ten on day 2.
Stage place: ?/20 (stage results are not currently live)
Dang Flat Tire!
Fresh Rubber!
Day 2:
Total ride time: 2 hours
Total ride: 14.5 miles
Total Vertical: N/A due to lift access
Day 2 Strava
Stage 4 Start
Stage 4: This stage started right off the lift so I took a full warm up run with another rider. That really helped me feel ready to ride and my stage felt fast and comfortable. I had pre-ridden this stage several times so nothing was a surprise. Knowing that stage 5 was a blue, and stage 6 was 2 of the hardest features in the race, I was looking forward to getting this one over with and focused on 6.
Stage place: ?/20
Stage 5: This stage was fun as shit! It was a flowy blue that wasn't too technical and had some sections where you could really open up and go! I was enjoying the confidence of my new tire and not worrying about any surprising features. There were a bunch of young kids behind me and I was happy I didn't get caught.
Stage place: ?/20
Stage 6 Start
Stage 6: This was the stage of the race. In line 2 guys in front of me and one behind me were talking about how best to walk over a couple features without losing a lot of time. I was really happy that I'd successfully pre-ridden everything, although only a couple times. The stage started out with a fast section down an open ski run and then right into the hardest, most exposed left turn on the mountain. I ended up doing a dumb tire hop to get around, but I stayed on the bike. After that it was a bunch of rock drops, I passed a guy, and ended up feeling pretty confident I'd maintained 9th. The level of stoke at the finish was high
Stage place: ?/20
Overall, this event was more fun as it went on. I wasn't too thrilled after pre-riding because of all the technical features. After the race though I am pretty happy with it all. I have to take an earnest look at my training schedule, bike choice, and risk acceptance if I'm going to be more competitive in a race like this in the future.
Final results (incorrectly linked to overall results as of Monday, Aug 14)
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