214 Races total with many of them being really hard on equipment and only 2 of them I have not finished! One of those races was Vision Quest this past weekend here in Orange County, yes my own backyard, I know. My new Specialized Epic performed really well, but when you have two riders team up against you at one point or another if you don't pay attention, and start to take too much risk, something’s got to give, this weekend that price was paid in full. I was chasing hard down one of the major descents when bad luck got the best of the sidewall of my rear tire and put a nice cut in it. I quickly put a tube and got going just to break my chain on one of the technical uphill climbs on the course. If you think that was it my rear tire went flat again, at this point I was running with my bike to aid station 2 where I had a spare Roval SL Wheel set waiting for me with fresh tires. By then I was so far back that challenging the leading group was impossible as they were more than 15 minutes ahead with 2 victories at this race I knew I can finish it, but my goal was to have a fare chance to defend the number 1 plate, and bad luck took that chance away. Next year I will be back wearing some kind of lucky charm to avoid this!

We have a good weekend of racing ahead of us here in Southern California, the Fontana National will start with the cross country race on Saturday, and short track and super-D on Sunday.

Some more great news is that the Costa Rica National Federation has selected me along with Federico Ramirez, and Paolo Montoya to represent Costa Rica at the Pan-American-Continental Championships to take place in Guatemala. More to come on this race, stay tuned.

MP