Solitude State Championship

Solitude is officially the State Championship. In fact, it is officially the State Championship every year. Curiously, it also seems to conflict with the National Championship each year, which means some of the fast guys are usually not there (Alex).

Still, with lots of singletrack high in the mountains, it is an appealing course, and the 6400 feet of rocky, loose elevation change makes it a tough course that yields little recovery on the descents (which are some of my favorites of the year, BTW). Indeed, a few years ago, one of my brothers was reduced to feeding on dandelions in the middle of the race.

Occurring in July, the weather is usually hot, and yesterday was no exception. This has been a strange year considering this was our first hot weather ICUP race of the year and we only have 2 races left!

Anyhow, the race started with a mad dash for the singletrack. I'm not sure how the whole sprint thing worked out because I just let them go for it, and it did not matter at all. As we single-filed up the first half of the singletrack climb, whoever was leading the main group rode a pace that was pretty easy, so when we hit the paved climb the legs were charged and it was time to go. I passed the group (including Bart who was obviously sick or something) and moved in to 4th, some distance behind Holley, then Greg G, then David W.

I had nearly caught Holley as we crested the top for lap 1, but then he gapped me on the descent. Usually descending is a strength, but I had not pre-ridden the course, and I made several significant errors on the first lap that cost me some time. Then Chris broke his chain and I passed him well before he was done fixing it. That put me into 3rd place, and there I sat for the rest of the race. I never saw anyone behind me again, and although I saw them on the 2nd lap climb, I never caught DW or GG. My 4th lap was pretty tough as I was exhausted and cramping, loosing lots of time, but it turned out the gap was big enough.

Another nice day in the Wasatch.