After experiencing an anaphylactic allergic reaction a week ago in Austria, flying back to the US on Monday, battling jet lag, and an amplified allergic state all week I was happy and relieved to be able to line up in my home UCI race in Midway, Utah. In the last 18 weeks I’ve lined up to race 16 times so I knew reaching the end of this block was going to be a stretch, but I absolutely love racing so I wanted to go out and really give it my all, whatever that looked like this weekend. I’ve become very used to racing in foreign places, so to race so close to home with so many friends cheering me on by name was truly something special. 

Short Track:

On Friday night in the Short Track, I stood on the start line, maybe a little bit too excited to be racing in my own backyard. I accelerated off of the line hard, with my Stages power meter clocking 568 watts for the first 20 seconds to start the race. I led the first lap fast, immediately splintering the group. There were 3 of us off of the front leading into lap 2. With a significant headwind through the start/finish line, I pulled to the side after lap one and Sofia came through to take a hard lap as well. After Sofia pulled her hard lap, Ruth came through and put in a good lap on the front as well. We were working well as a group of three. After those 3 hard laps, it was my turn to get back to the front. I made the mistake of not committing fully to a strategy. I didn’t push out another hard lap, but I also didn’t back it entirely off. I held a medium pace up front which allowed for a hard attack to take me by surprise from behind. I chased with 670 watts for 10 seconds and managed to just close the gap back down, but I had definitely used a major match to close the gap.  When the next attack came, I didn’t have the match to burn and was forced to moto on in chase mode. I chased hard and actually increased my power in the closing minutes of the race, but it was too little too late for the top step. I crossed the finish line in 3^rd and secured a podium finish. 

Cross Country:

The heat was blazing for our 5 pm start to the cross-country race. The pace started out much more relaxed than the short track and I settled into second wheel for the hole shot. I followed in second wheel for a while, but became aware that burning too many matches too early in the heat would have major implications later in the race. I backed off and settled into my own rhythm. Sofia was off the front and Ruth and I began our own battle behind. I strategized during the second lap, discovering that I felt stronger on most of the climbs and on lap 3 I made a move on the 1^st big climb of the course, putting a gap between Ruth and myself. Over the next couple of laps, the laps continued to increase and I felt like I had established a solid rhythm throughout the course. As we entered into the final lap, however, I realized that a few mistakes had diminished my lead on Ruth and we would now have a true battle for 2^nd on our hands.

I made a few attacks on the climb, but the small gaps I opened never quite seemed to snap the rubber band. As we entered the 2^nd to last descent, I came in hot and had to put a foot down to avoid a tree. Ruth wasn’t able to slow down on the steep descent and hit be from behind. We both went down. Our bikes became a tangled mess with her bars stuck in my stokes. We worked really well together to detangle the mess, but I think we were both pretty stressed to have this happening in the final minutes of the race. Some of my controls were damaged from the crash, but there was no time to even think about it as we now came down to the final moments. Ultimately Ruth was able to best me on the day, but I was happy to hang on, even after all of the craziness, for a 3^rd place podium finish. 

Now I have some very much needed time at home to reset and put in some solid training for the 2^nd half of the season!