Am I the only guy on this team that races or writes about their races?????? Come on dudes. Speak up!

After pimping out the bike last night with the Ritchey Tubulars, new cables and Tufo Flexus tubulars, today was going to be good or a nightmare. You don’t swap out that much stuff the night before a race.

The course was super bumpy with some really loose sand/gravel corners, so tire pressure and keeping the rubber side down were important today. The field was the biggest yet this year in the 35+ open race. It was the 1st race close to Denver, so for those who wear the home-arrest ankle bike racing bracelets, they all showed up. It’s pretty funny because a lot of guys won’t drive an hour out of Denver or Boulder for a race. An hour plus for me is the norm. The start was full-on sprint as always and position into the 1st singletrack technical section was key. I rolled into it top 5 so I was happy with my start. The pace was super hot and the loose corners and off-camber dismounts were taking their toll on the field. A few guys rolled past and I settled in top 10. I wasn’t going to see the lead group today – the knee and a fog in the head from yesterday’s race didn’t have me at 100%, but being in the top 10 with 50+ guys was good. The carbon wheels and tubulars were flawless. They stuck like glue and I never feared washing out. The wind was kickin, but it seemed like I was rolling solo most of the race. I did take advantage a couple laps and sit in and then attacked the guys that I was with. 2 laps to go I caught a Mitch Westall (before the race he said do you remember me and I didn’t and he said we used to race mountain bikes together and you would always win and I would get second… I said you must mean my brother Jeff.. he said Oh yea) and we started to work together and then he threw his chain and I hit the gas and opened up a gap, but not a very big one. Every time I looked back he was closing. The last 2 laps were the hardest laps of the race for me as I didn’t want to get caught and I was fighting the wind solo. I rolled in 8th.

Not a bad weekend: 6th on Saturday with 2 mechanicals and 8th today.

Jared