Tsali Tspankin

Man, that was tough. After days of radar watching and some last minute bailouts had me trying to decide if I should head south, a pleasant surprise call from Matt Batton Saturday morning got me off the fence and rolling down to Tsali North Carolina to get hammered. Anna Jean (Nikki) Dallaire joined for the fun and off we rolled into the rain and mountains.

We were the last wave to start, the sky was turning blue and the trails were shaping up pretty good. I had a decent start jumping in the woods about 7th. I had to take some aggressive lines right at the top of the fire road since I got pinned behind a guy for much of the opening climb that was making it hard to advance, and then made my way into 5th pretty quickly. From there we seperated ourselves and rolled along pretty well. Then, just because I cannot seem to get my stuff together, my camelback hose came loose. I ket yo-yoing on the back as I tried to fix it on the fly then finally had to stop 2 times to get it secured, losing many spots in the process. I mounted a good effort at the start of lap 2 to catch a few of the guys and get back in the top 5, but perhaps tried to do too much too fast and burned all my matches. The fire went out.

The last 5 miles were a death march. I would like to think if I hadn't had the problems and could have just stayed in with the lead group riding at a steady tempo and not been fallin off then chasing repeatedly, I woulda been able to maintain and finish better, but who knows. I still managed 10th and the season is young – there is much time to improve. Matt finished 14th and Anna Jean won her first Pro race in convincing style (congrats to her). We took the scenic route home through the Smokeys and Gatlinburg which always provides many a good spectacle. Next stop; Green River next weekend to kick off the KY series - Yee-Haw.