Category: Cat 1 17-18

Result: 1st

Teammates: Josie and Mackinzie

I was really excited for the first race of the season where a lot of

the competitive 17/18 riders would be racing and knew it was going to be a tough race. I started my warmup and, after riding around for a bit, figured it would be fun to go through the first part of the course. I put on my prerace playlist and was having a grand time until I crashed slightly hard on my side while riding down a loose section on the first part of the course. I was a little shocked and my pre-race confidence was effectively shattered. I rode back to the pit covered in dirt with my leg hurting but thankfully mama Julia helped clean me up and get me ready to go. I didn't end up getting a good warmup in and was still a bit shaken from the crash when I rolled up to the start next to Shayna, Grace, and another girl who looked really fast and didn't speak English. Needless to say I was bit nervous. I also noticed that my bars were pretty crooked but without time to fix them realized I would have to make due. After a pep talk from Julia, I realized that while crashing before the race was unfortunate I needed to be tough and race the race I had prepared for even if the morning hadnt gone exactly as I'd planned.

The race started with Frederique sprinting to the lead and shayna

grabbing her wheel. Up the first climb shayna and I were able to pass her and I just focused on sticking to shaynas wheel. We wound through the singletrack going pretty hard and after a few minutes I noticed shayna slowing down a little bit. I had been so focused on her wheel that I didn't notice we dropped the rest of the group. I didn't know how that had possibly happened but when we got to a steep short fireroad climb and I felt really good I decided to go for it. I was really worried about making a move too early but I trusted my gut and went hard on every climb, trying to use the descents as recovery.

Without clear splits I had no idea what my lead was so I just kept pushing as hard as I could till the end. It was an awesome race and I'm so proud of all my Whole Athlete teammates, you guys rocked it!

Thanks so much to Dario and Julia for making this trip possible!

Kate