Yesterday was another awesome day of racing here in SoCal. The Sagebrush is a race that has happened most years for something like the last 20 years. It’s a classic one-lap course inland from San Diego with some good sustained climbing (mostly paved) and a lot of fun whoop de dooed, burmed singletrack. I love racing national events on short courses, where spectators can actually see the race, but there is something cool about being pretty much in the middle of no-where and doing a big loop race also. The overall turnout seemed really good and the pro class was 35 strong.
We just cruised for the first 10 minutes out a paved road, and when the grade kicked up for our first main climb of the day (still on the road) everyone actually rode tempo. A couple minutes from the top the attacks started and Andy Shultz, Sid, Sam J, Manny and a u-23 national rider went off the front. There was another group of 4-5 guys and I was just behind them hitting the actual trails. From there we did about 30min of awesome trails where I worked my way by a rider from Mexico and Sean Donovan. Then it was climbing time again, a good 30-40min straight this time. My rhythm was good and I slowly caught and passed Chuck Jenkins. We climbed up to Mt Pinos Lookout and the switchbacked road let you see the leaders a few minutes ahead. Next in front of me was u-23 champ Tad Elliot, but I could tell he was pulling away some on the climb. From there it was another section of ripping downhill singletrack, one last 10min or so climb, and then the final 15 minutes of single track down towards the finish. At some point I god Tad in sight but there was enough racing left to bring him back. In the end we end up finishing along side some beginner and sport riders who do a shorter course and merge back in with us on the final single tracks. It gets a little crazy passing on the sandy, sweeping trails, but its pretty cool at the same time. Everyone enjoys being finished around the same time and it’s just a good scene.
http://www.uscup.net/up/file/09_SAGEBRUSH_XC_RESULTS.pdf
Time to get back to work, I wonder what Todd Wells is doing?
nice job!
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