I am very happy with this result (5th). Its been a long time coming, let me tell you. I think I needed that to get my morale back. Its funny to read the race reports… that never tell the whole story. I was in the lead for more than half the race with Neal and Ryan up until this monster climb known as 9 mile. Pretty much 9 miles straight up. It’s a crusher… I held on as long as possible, but that wasn’t enough. Then as I was about 10 mins from the line. Dre and Freddy passed me while I was starting to fade a little and ultimately that’s how it ended up. I don’t know how many times I race I get called Dre… go Dre… that’s all I ever here… I should ride around with a big stick, I am not Dre on it… ah well, there are worse people in the world to be called right? Besides, this way I can ride around in mystery and no one knows who I am. I like that angle better anyways….
But yeah, back to the race, it was very good. Tough conditions, pissed rain the entire time and made for a soupy mess of an already tough course. Good conditions for me actually…. Bike rode beautifully under me the entire time. I chose the right tires for battle too. I went with some heavier compound tubeless tires that rode all winter so I knew how they would handle the mud. Heavier yes… but they never flat.
When I look at the results, all the guys who beat me race full time with 100% national or provincial team funding…. They’re only job is bike riding/racing. So outside of that for a working stiff like me, I was pretty happy with the result. My goal was going into the race was top 5 and I achieved that, so I would have to call it a success.
As far as the form coming back… yes! I made some pretty serious changes to my bike set up over the winter and it was not working for me at all this year. I had no leg power, bad cramping and severe knee pain. I decided to take some measurements off of some older bikes of mine and noticed my saddle height was a full half inch lower on my mtb this year vs last. I changed back to my old shoes too in my old cleat position and it makes all the difference in the world. As the saying goes, if it aint broke, don’t fix it….
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Kevin takes on feed in the 'Test of Metal'
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