Vail lake~ SoCal race #2

Going into this race I felt more excited then nervous because vail is one of my favorite courses. On Friday I packed up all the things I needed to race and made sure to clean my bike, then we were off to vail to camp for the weekend. That night I just hung out by the camp fire and settled in to the trailer then it was time to go to bed. The next morning I woke up, ate breakfast, then went to my team pit to help set us, afterwards it was time to preride. After the preride I felt ready to race because I really enjoyed the course.
The morning of I woke up around 7 then went to our team pit to have a team meeting, after the meeting I went back to my trailer to eat breakfast, after that I brought everything to the pit so I was ready to race. After bringing everything to the pit it was time to wait and hydrate. Before I knew it it was time to start warming up, while warming up I thought about my goals for this race. After warming up it was time to get ready and go to staging. Luckily I got a good starting position and then it was time to go!!

The first lap felt pretty good, we started off at a good pace, on the first climb I was in 6th but going up the fire road a group of three passed me and for the rest of the first lap I tried to catch back up. Going through the lap I felt fast but I was not fast enough to catch the people ahead . When I was finishing my first lap I could hear everyone cheering me and my competitors on. For the second lap I was by myself, no one behind for a while, but I could see my competition in front, including my sister. My second lap felt the slowest, but when I wanted to give up I tried to push harder and my legs burned. My favorite part was going up “Air Force” hill because I could hear tons of people cheering me on and I flew up that hill at full speed! When finishing my second lap I could see 8th place about 25 seconds ahead and I decided that I needed to catch up. Through the first single track I could see 8th a little ahead then I decided to make my move on the the fire road. As I got closer and closer it was almost the end of the fire road so I decide to sprint and pass right before the tunnel of love downhill, she was behind me for a while then I didn’t see her anymore. As I was picking up the pace I could see my sister not too far ahead however I wasn’t able to close the gap before the finish. I finished in 8th like at Lake Perris but I was happier to be closer to the top girls. And also it was very exciting getting first place as a team for d1, so proud of my team members for all there hard work.

Overall I thought the race went pretty well. I definitely wanted a higher placement but I was closer to people I wanted to be close to, so I was happy with that. I’m excited for the next race and hopefully I will get a better placement and hopefully top 5, but every race no matter what placement is so exciting and reminds me of why I really love this sport.