TEVA Games - Saturday

A couple stories one for each day about this weekend so I'll make two entries. First, I gotta say my calendar is already marked for next year at these games. This was an awesome event! Vail was packed with so many athletes competing in so many different events, it was really fun.

My mom came with on this little trip, so it was great to have her there to see this. We got to Vail before noon and my race wasn't for another four hours, but with all the excitement, I still forgot to eat enough. I remembered about an hour and a half before that I still hadn't yet, so I hit up a couple different Bear Naked cereal tents for some "samples".

Walking through the village we saw some of the kayak freestyle, some slope style practice, and right near the XC race start they were holding the "Eukanuba Dock Dog" competition which was a real crowd pleaser and super fun to watch!

At the start of my race I was towards the back of the wave when the gun went off...starting on a loose over hard pack slightly downill sprint before the first steep power climb I rocketed past about 30-40 riders into 5th place without much effort.

Into the first climbs things were going well and I'm on the wheel of 4th place when "snap" HE busts his chain on a second steep power climb just about 5 minutes into the race...I was too close to him, he lost balance and rolled back into me while about 15-20 riders go by and I'm trying not to flip over backwards on this mountain. I got going again but, my rhythm was busted. I forgot the elevation factor and tried going hard to get back up where I was. It took too much effort and I had only gone past maybe six or seven racers in 20 minutes before I realized how much extra effort I was putting in...and we were still climbing up and up and up.

It was too late, I blew myself up bad and drifted back. The second lap I stayed more consistent and got a few guys but I didn't place where I think I could have. I forgot how much the elevation can affect performance when at that altitude and level of effort. Oh well though, no big deal.

Regardless of my finish it was an awesome course and an awesome race. It's been awhile since I raced on a mountain course like this...2008 Angel Fire maybe? The Santa Cruz Superlight worked great and the rough downhills were a blast - I was ear to ear smiles on that!!

This was going on Saturday night during the concert and festival throughout Vail Village...night time freestyle kayaking is pretty cool ;)