First race of the season earns me the big "W"
The first weekend of collegiate MTB racing couldn't have gone much better, besides most of the team getting lost. Starting at the begining, we showed up to the race in Fort Collins with over 40 team members, and many of them new Freshman. Saturday was the short track and Downhill. In ST my Fort Lewis team got to the front of the 27 man field quickly and separated ourselves from the rest. Within two laps we had a seven man break, all FLC except for Brian Alders of CU who rode really well. Schmidty initiated the first major attack, then Ben (the Germanator) moved up to him, then I made the jump across. In the end we got caught but kept attacking each other and Brian. Ben ended up winning and I took second, then was Chris Kuhl and Brian Alders. Also, Cody Wilderman won the downhill today, nice work man.The cross country was a very technical east coast style course of three laps equaling 24 miles. About half way through the course on the first lap a horseback rider had torn down some tape marking the course and Ben who was leading Snyder and I by about 45 seconds made a wrong turn. Snyder, Zac Shriver and I then came through the feedzone with two laps remaining and were now the leaders. Snyder hit a tree with his bike and broke his front derailleur, making his chain slip off whenever he stopped pedaling. I ended up riding away and rode the third lap solo and taking conservative lines on the downhill's, and without a rear brake from a crash on lap two. I went on to take my first collegiate win of the season, and hopefully not the last. I gotta be glad I was with Snyder on the first lap or I'm sure I would have made the wrong turn too that cost most of the racers.
I am now leading the conference with a 2nd and 1st place to start the season. I had planned on doing 24 hours of Moab but will now focus on making the prestigious FLC Nationals team for the second year.
