Skyline

[shiloh]

Skyline is my favorite local race.  The course never lets up.  The climbs are steep, tight, and technical and so are the descents. I think I have been doing this race for the last six years.  My best finish at Skyline was a while back when it was a state championship race.  I got first in my class and third overall,  not too many people showed up for it that year. Anyways, I love the race and I'm in great shape now but my crash at the rockhopper has left my wrist sore.  I'm forced to ride technical sections of trail slower than normal because of it.  Mentally I wasn't in it.  I wanted to race but knew I wouldn't be 100%. 

My first mistake was in thinking the race started at 9:30 instead of 9:00.  I got lucky and wondered towards the start line at about 8:52.  I squeezed in the back with the pro women and some expert men.  Lining up next to pro women isn't so bad. 

I got a decent start out of the gate.  I worked my way up into the top 20 but all the dust I was sucking was slowing me down.  when it cleared and I was able to catch my breath I found was racing with some familiar faces. Justin and Andrio weren't far away.  Andrio bobbled climbing around some stairs and I got by.  I set my sights on Justin.  I caught his wheel at the beginning of the second lap and was able to hold it for about 10 seconds then Andrio caught up and got by.  And soon they were both out of sight. 

For the better part of the second lap I was lonely.  I hit some lapped riders towards the end and assumed I was falling further off the back. I prepared myself to be caught and passed by more racers, but it never happened.  On the third lap I caught Carson who blew himself up trying to keep up with Levi.  Then I saw Andrio on the side of the trail with a flat.  That's not how I want to beat him.  So  I rolled across the finish line with no one else in sight, 9th place pro class, somewhere in the top 15 I think. 

I placed well, didn't have my fastest time on that course and never felt like I was really in the race.  It is interesting how I let a little injury can take me out of it mentally.  If I were just 2 minutes faster I would have been mixing it up with Justin and Andrio a bit more.  But the injury gave me a conservative and kind of a boring race.