Xterra West Cup Las Vegas

Alright I am going to start keeping a better update on my races considering I am already 3 weeks behind. I have been in Las Vegas and Michigan for two Xterra’s this year already and am on my way to Alabama right now for the third Xterra. So we will start off in Vegas and I will get another race report up shortly about Michigan. The week before the Xterra West Cup in Vegas was a whirlwind, as I flew up to Saratoga Springs, NY to attend SICI which is a bicycle fit school run by Serotta. Flew back to Denver on Wednesday and then to Vegas on Thursday. After a few days of prep on the course, we were all ready for the race on Saturday.
I started off well in the swim, jumped right on Craig Evans and Conrad Stolz’s feet and cruised through the swim getting out in the top 5. Once I was on the bike is when the pain started, the bike course was a very tough two loop course, with one hill so steep you couldn’t ride them and everyone had to hike-a-bike up. One other element that we weren’t planning on was a nice wind that kicked up and it was such a barren landscape there was nothing to block the wind and we battled a tough headwind on all the uphills. I never felt great on the bike and was just going through the motions trying to conserve as I knew it would be a long hard day. My pacing worked out alright on the bike and I felt good heading out on to the run. The run course was similar to the bike a two loop very hilly affair. I cruised through the first lap and felt good, then a lack of hydration caught up with me. I slowly started to slow down and the second lap I shuffled through, thankfully only losing one place. I crossed the line in 10th good enough to hold my standing in the Xterra US Cup Series. Overall the race wasn’t bad, but there is a lot of room for improvement. It shook a bunch of rust out of the system as I never felt like I could really go hard all that much I just was going through the motions. You can see some photos of the race on my Picasa Album, thanks to Rich Cruse for some great photos.

Cursin' by the little bit of green on the course.

Charging up one of the hills.

The turn for home and onto the run.

Still feeling good