Wave Country - Ankie style

So, it was like a turkish bath back there in them south end woods. The rain did the trails a world of good, but the resulting steam was somethin.

I started kinda slow, first in the woods, but not killin it. My legs felt heavy and I was starting to feel a bit bummed as I am sick of fealin crappy on race day. But once over Montanna, they felt better, must have been the 15 minutes sittin on the start line. There was a problem though, my Hydrapak's hose wasnt connected = no fluids. I knew if I pulled over (at this point it was myself, Mike Stevens and Ben Richardson on top of Big Ring) Ben would get a gap that I probably wouldn't be able to close. But, if I didn't stop, no fluids would hurt a lot more. I was kinda affraid, given the heat, to really push it to the limit; if I went too far over and caught Ben, I might wind up cramping later. So I tried to just ride as high a tempo I could sustain and see what happens. I was able to pull Mike back at the end of lap 2, the one minute that I gave Ben held until the last lap where I was able to get it down to 30 seconds, but he heard me comin and dug a little deaper to keep the gap.

Oh well. given thats the first year I havent blown up at Waverly in a couple years, and I felt strong all the way through for a change, I was happy. Thanks to Barry and Mike who stepped up to help make this a great race. The new trails will make Wave Country an MTB destination fer sure.