DV NMBS

The bad news.. I was DFL(happy now Mark?). The good news, there were only 2 in my category.. Sunday morning the start came early at 8:00 a.m. Since it was such a small turnout they start 19-44 all at once so figuring out who was in your category wasn't easy. The start was fast and I wasn't able to hold on to the leaders for long. I did manage to get around a few guys before the turn across the lawn. As we started up little stick I made an effort to get back on the group but a couple of guys were able to hold me off just before the top of little stick. Heading down the short twisty single track at the top of little stick the guys in front of me weren't very good in the DH and the gap started to grow with the leaders in front of me. Finally on the climb up pipeline I managed to get around one of them and had to suffer behind the other until the 12 and under split when I took the inside corner. I pushed hard through the rest of Deer Crest and approaching the village climb I could see a couple of guys just starting into the trees. I pushed hard up the village climb and then as I started up snowtop. I wasn't sure if we were doing a climb to the top of the gap trail or not so I decided to throttle back a bit but managed to pick a few guys off. The DH to Mitt's house was sweet and hadn't turned to moon dust yet. I managed to close the gap on a few riders heading back toward snowtop. As I came across the guardshack I was relieved that we weren't doing snowtop and and started pushing hard as I could see the first-place guy about 100 feet ahead of me. As I started my second lap the gap had closed to about 50 feet and then 20 feet as we started up little stick. I pushed as hard as I could trying to close the gap as I crested the top of little stick he managed to get a rider between us and then he just started railing on the downhill. This time I wasn't able to get around the rider until the climb up village and the 1st place rider was out of site. Coming into Mitt's on the second lap I managed to catch another rider on the dh but was unable to get around him on the short climb by Mitt's. As we started the DH a 16-19 sport caught us and tried to pass on in the bushes which didn't work. He was pissed, but I wasn't going to stop just to let him by, if he wanted to pass so badly he was going to have to bush wack-it. Finally the trail opened up and I decided to go. A couple of minutes later the 16-19 must have finally got around and then went around me just before the guard shack. I decided to stay on his wheel and push him. As we came around snowtop he started to slow down so I went to pass but he wasn't going to have any of that. I told him to pick up the pace or let me pass. As we hit the last u-turn there were a couple of guys about 10 feet in front of us and told the 16-19 to catch them. Well he sucked in the loose rocky dh to the pavement so they got a bigger gap on us as we hit the pavement and then he managed to hold me off at the finish. I finished with at 1:29:36 and 2 consistent laps so I'm pretty happy with that.

The first place guy didn't even show up for his medal. I think he was an expert downhiller looking for a little extra time on the bike.