first off sorry for not updating the web page lately. Things have been wicked busy lately. Ok enough apologizing and onto the update.

Saturday I entered the 6hr solo race at Pats Peak. I knew I was going to have some tough competition with 30+ guys in the solo open category. I pretty much lead the solo category right from the gun. The laps were about 5 miles long and had 900ft of climbing. My lap times were pretty consistent throughout the day. I started out around 28minutes or so then by my 9th lap my time was around 36minutes. Then for my last two laps the time was more around 38 to 40min as I wanted to ease up the pace and start my recovery for Sunday's XC.

Hattie and I had made hotel reservations through hotwire.com for a place in Concord Saturday night. The hotel was key in my recovery. I was able to take a hot shower, kick up my legs, get my legs massaged, and take a much needed ice bath! Then I was able to sleep in until 10am! There is nothing more restful then 11+ hours of sleep. 

Over the night some rain had passed through making the course slightly slick. The roots were just we enough really keep you on your toes. 

The pro field was really strong again. 25+ pro's. Not to mention some big name guys showed up like Johnathan Page (you know him the huge cyclo-cross star, silver medal at worlds, multi time national champion) and Jammie Driscoll (multi time national champion and pro cyclocross racer fro Cyclocrossworld.com). My legs were pretty sore and heavy but I knew if I could hang with the lead group for the first lap then my legs would start to come around and I would be alright. I did just as I thougt and planned. I hung in for 5th on the first lap and then the pain started to go away and just like that I had my legs back! I slowly picked off the top riders including Johnathan Page. The only person I couldn't catch was Driscoll. The guy was flying up the climbs. There was no way I could close the gap on him, Driscoll was clearly the stronger rider on Sunday. By the 5th lap my legs were fading and fading fast. I thought i was going to blow up and it wouldn't have suprised me if I did. Two gels and a bottle of coke were not enough callories and fuel for me on the 5th lap. All I could do was race in damage control and hope I could hold off 3rd place. Thankfully my lead was enough and I finished the race in a honorable 2nd place about 2 minutes behind Driscoll and 30 seconds ahead of 3rd place. 

Overall I did 16 laps on the course over the two days. I put in over 80 miles of riding and over 14,000 vertical feet of climbing. Hopefully all this climbing and racing will pay off in two weeks when the World Cups in Quebec kick off! Till then it is time for some proper rest. 

I do need to send out a big thank you to Hattie. She spent the two days in the feed zone while running around and cheering me on throughout the course. I wouldn't have had the results I did if it wasn't for all of her help over the weekend. I am really glad she will be coming up to the World Cups with me.