neVenEvEneveNeveNeven: Chalk Creek Stampede

Chris pinning it in DS

The Chalk Creek Stampede is one of my favorite races of the summer, as it's a weekend filled with gated racing!! They have 2 permanent 4x tracks and a slalom track that runs down the center of them! It's awesome!! Plus the backdrop of the race course is a 14,000 foot peak...Mt. Princeton. Beautiful!

Chris, Katie, and I headed out on Friday afternoon to get some XC preriding and some 4x and slalom practice in. Then we headed to the hot springs for a nice, relaxing soak. We got up on Saturday and got Katie to the race to get warmed up and ready to go. She dominated the first 2 laps and then had 2 punctures which left her unable to finish the race...ughhh!!! Chris toed the line just as it started misting and was off for a 4 lap race of hot laps! There isn't a lot of climbing on the course, so you're pedaling almost the whole time without much rest at all! I was able to get done with practice and feed Chris who was killing it during his race!! He ended up taking the "W" and was off to a great start of dominating the MSC Cat 1 series! :)

Katie getting ready to rock

Cat 1 19-29 podium

I was a little disappointed, as I qualified 2nd, 0.7 off of Bobbi Watt. We were 3 seconds ahead of the next fastest girls, though, so that was a good confidence booster! We only had a semifinal, since there were only 8 girls, and the first round went well and we were off to the finals. Since Bobbi got a better qualifier than me, she got lane 1. I knew I needed a great gate to get her, as her BMX background is solid! Well, I got it and held my position, but the combo of my uber wide bars and Bobbi not wanting to get pushed off of the track caused us to lock up bars going down the first straight. I didn't want to crash and let the JV team pass us for no good reason, so I sort of backed off and let Bobbi go. Maybe not the most aggressive plan, but given a pending 2 month trip to Europe, I didn't need to get hurt racing in Nathrop! I ended up in 2nd which only ended up paying $102.30, pretty weak considering previous pro payouts for MSC races. Oh well.

4x Podium

Before...

After!!

Sunday saw Chris racing DS for the first time. It was fun to support him and cheer. He ended up 8th...on his squishy XC bike! Good work, I thought! I am not a huge DS fan, and I just couldn't get into on Sunday. I was way more excited about riding the XC race course than I was for racig slalom! Needless to say, this didn't translate well in my qualifying run or my racing! I ended up 4th, which doesn't even get paid this year! Again, oh well, it was a really fun weekend of riding, and it was a lot of fun riding/racing, eating good food, soaking in the hot springs, and enjoying great company! :)