Pontiac Lake XC, the count down begins!

What a great day for racing and on one of the best trails in the state. When I think of XC mountain bike racing, this is the place I think about. It has it all! Fast, technical, lots of climbing and lots for down hills. You place high on the podium hear and you earned it. Over the past several week however, it has been very dry and the trail has seen a lot of traffic so it had become very loose. Thank God for the rain last night to tighten everything up and and it super fast.

Going into this race Adam Naish and I were dead tied in points for the best 5 out of 8 races in the Tailwind USAC XC Michigan State Championship series. So unless less one of us took 2nd place today, the series is going to come down to a who beats who in the last race of the series at Stony Creek on Sept 7th. So lets talk more about today.

It was hot. I made sure to hydrate well in the days before and right up to the start. We took off and immediately, Adam jumped on my wheel and stayed there almost to the end. (I guess it was paybacks from Fort Custer) But it was Ok. I felt good and was up for the challenge. We set a good pace for both of our laps. And with about 3 miles to go, Adam decided to put the hammer down. I jumped on his wheel and hung on. Adam had his legs today and was setting a blistering pace. This was the only time I think my heart rate actually spiked and stayed spiked! Another rider from an older class got into the mix and separated us until the last climb. This is not where I wanted to be. Adam sprinted up the last climb, and I was stuff behind the other guy and could not attack. By the time I got off the hill and onto the fast double track, Adam had already been in his big ring and was about 100 yrds ahead. I knew the last 1/2 mile or so was all grass and figured that this would be my only chance to catch him. I tried to dig deep and when I looked up to the finish, there was Adam about 30 feet in front of me. He took 2nd I took 3rd.

But not all is lost, The series will still come down to who beats who (As far as I can tell based on what I read in the rules) and I actually beat some personal beat times at PLRA. The fastest time I ever did in 1 lap was 46 mins. I did that in last years XC race. Today my 1st lap was 45 and change. Last year I ran a 46 and 50 min lap for the race and this year I ran a 45 and 46. So if I look at my overall improvement -- I kicked some ass! At least my own.

So I have 2 weeks to prepare for Stony Creek. Time to heal, time to train. I am looking forward to this race and I feel my chances are good. So let the final show down begin!