Rim Nordic XC #3

1st Pro Men

3 laps/21 miles

Rim Nordic is an awesome local race series near Big Bear. This series really helped me get hooked on racing when I was younger, so I try to make it out to at least one race of the series every year. I hadn’t really done any structured training coming into this race, only fun rides since my break after nationals, and I did a pretty hefty ride the day before with some family friends so between these two I wasn’t too sure how sharp my form would be. I was third off the start and soon made my way up to second wheel. I sat on Vince Lombardi’s wheel for the first lap, just playing it safe. We were able to put a pretty comfortable gap on the rest of the field. Vince was drillin’ it on the climbs, but I felt a bit stronger on the descents. Towards the end of the first lap I surged I front of Vince before the last descent and made up a little bit of time on him. From that point on, I kept it pinned, making him chase to try and close the little gap. I was able to stay ahead while putting time on him here and there. I held on for the win! If you are ever in Southern California, try to make it out to a Rim Nordic race. The people running it are some of the nicest I’ve met and the whole atmosphere is so rad.

Over the Hump MTB

1st Pro Men

4 laps

The Over the Hump Series is a super-popular Tuesday night race series at Lake Irvine. Everyone I’d talked to about the race loved it so I had to make it out to the race while I had the chance. The course was pretty nice, snaking back and forth up against Lake Irvine. There was a whole lot of sustained flat sections on the course so tactics played a huge role in the race. I didn’t even plan on doing this race until my buddy from cannondale called me up the day of the race and offered me a ride out to the venue, so unfortunately I did absolutely nothing to recover from Sunday, and nothing to prep for this race. Not knowing how I would be riding again, I just sat in with the lead group for the majority of the race. I took a few huge pulls and did my fair share of work. On the last lap I made my way to the front of our 4 man group as we sailed into one of the more technical sections. There was some space between my wheel and the guys behind me as we hit the flats so I figured it was a good time to get away. I attacked hard and held it into the hills. For the rest of the race kept the throttle pinned and held onto the lead to the finish. I enjoyed the race a whole lot and it turned out to be an awesome way to cap off my season.