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Season Re-Cap

By Hillary
A glimpse into this spring’s world of downhill and dual slalom racing. Or at least mine. This year is one of the first years to mark the shift of racing from west to east coast.

So, I went to Sea Otter. Holy mud! I think next year they should hold a mud wrestling festival instead. If any of you have ever been there, you have seen the XC style Dh course they have. I rode that, as well as the slalom on my 6 inch Prophet. Many shoes were lost that weekend. Races went ok for me. Our strip mall style motel had a celing light mounted on the wall that looked like a giant illuminated boob. At least there was a kickin dinner across the street, and some good industry parties.

Massanutten was next. There was actually another pro women there! Lisa Myklak, who I’ve seen drop a 20 footer and usually makes podium, was there with team Moorewood. Before practice on the first day I got my gear on, stepped out of the team trailer, and onto a small round rock which rolled by body off of my ancle. After spending some QT with my foot in a friends cooler of ice, I wraped it up and it continued to swell through practice. I was walking, which hurt much more then riding, like I had a peg leg. On race day…I got a flat at the top! I pulled over, let the next pro women go by, and realized I still had enough air to ride. At least enough not to destroy the rims on my already sold and awaiting shipping as soon as my new bike comes in bike. I got back on and closed the gap between the next rider. If only I hadn’t stoped, I might have gotten 2nd instead ot 3rd. Oh well, still the hardtail class. Probly not so good for the cankle, but I wasn’t about to miss it. I had a good start, but then guess what! Flat! I walked back to the lift and that was that. My ankle is still not recovered.

Then there was the US Open. Huge race, tons of pros and top amatures from around the country. It rained, the course was very rocky and steep. I was riding ok, but my bike kept dropping the chain. It had been doing this for a few weeks, and the fix required some major rearrangement. Not something I wanted to do to a bike that just needed to last till my new Cannondale Judge came in. In my race run I dropped my chain half way down and had to pump it out the rest of the run. Oh well. Still had a great time riding some of the other killer trails and seeing some friends from out west. Plus there was a sweet pool at the condo the team got. Although once in it I realized it was doubling as a bath for some dudes.

NORBA National at Sugar Mtn NC. My new ride had just come in from Cannondale and it was ridin nice. The kind of bike that makes you giddy to get out and tear it up. I needed a new bike bad. The course was scarry hard. I had never been down to the Smokey Mtns before, they’re so beautiful and jungleous. Rooty and rocky. It rained. Hard. The roots were slippery. Two of the pro women didn’t race. It acctually dried enough to be really fun by race day, and I was feeling good even after 3 day of practice and slalom. I crashed in my race run in a steep shoot that ended in a slow turn. The crash pinched my front brake line so it locked up. No front brake. I took it slow and made it through. Bummer. Tracey Hannah, Mick Hannah’s little sister who RIPS, finally turned 18 and Pro. She took the win by beating reigning world champion Sabrina Jonier, as well as a few other world champs in her first Pro race. For me on the other hand, slalom went great! Although I couldn’t manage to wipe the sand out and hit the double on the course, I still took 6th place!

That brings us finally to Whitetail. I feel like I should just start talking nonsence and cursing cause there’s no way anyone is still reading this. Anyway. As you know from my previous longwinded post about Whitetail, I had ridden the course for a few weekends and was having a blast on it and on the new Cannondale. Just what you want before a race. Come race weekend though, I just wasn’t feeling it. I guess we all have those days. It poured on race day and the lifts had to shut down. This ment I didn’t get any pre-race practice. I kept crashing in my race run, so I decided to just make it down safe. Slalom was another story though. There was one other pro women there, thats one more then usual. I had been getting her in most of the runs, and the final race was just going to be one run. We were given the choice to do two out of three though, and I took it. I was worried I would regret this, but one run just left too much to chance. The first round went well, I got her out of the gate and held the lead till the end. Wishing I settled for one round, we loaded in the gate for two. We were neck and neck out of the gate and through the first series of poles. I was feeling the heat and went down hard. It knocked the wind out of me and I hit my head hard. For a moment I lay there in fear that I might be hurt and unable to finish. I got up after a minute and was able to ride out the course. At the bottom we loaded our bikes onto the Mule and were back at the top for round three. We were back to square one, except now I was sore, tired and my confidence was a little shaken. In the gate I tried to focus and stay calm. I had a good gate and was out in front, maintaining speed through the poles, but she was close. Through the whole round she was close, but I managed to keep ahead. My first legitimate win in pro dual slalom. On the podium I got a big huge check! No really, one of the big cardboard ones. All in all I came home with $700 for first and second!

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