Missoula ProXCT Category: UCI Junior Women Result: 2nd Just a week after returning from Canada I found myself packing up again, this time heading on a bigger adventure, starting with the Missoula ProXCT in Montana. We had a bumpy ride into Missoula, where I met up with the rest of my team, Bear Development and settled in. The next day we woke up to sunny skies with thunderheads in sight. It had rained on and off that week but the trails were draining well and I was excited to find the course in perfect condition during pre ride. I was coming off a hard week of training and a big midweek ride and knew I wasn’t fully recovered yet so I cut the pre ride short. That afternoon I spent doing everything I could to make the legs feel fresh. There were showers on and off that evening which eventually cleared into a bright sunset and rainbows everywhere. Race morning came around fast, only to wait around again until our 2:30 pm start. Although sunny in the morning, clouds were gathering, and I knew it could be unpredictable weather in the mountains. Although not enough to arrive at the venue prepared with leg warmers. :-| A nice sprinkle started as we left for the venue and steadily increased as we got closer to the course. The temperatures dropped ten degrees as we unloaded from the team van and walked into 40 degrees and pouring rain. Because of the rain I didn’t end up starting my warm up till a bit later. 15 minutes into my warm up I noticed my back tire was low. I thought I’d just add some air before my start, it had probably lost air overnight and from travel. Soon though I felt it getting lower and knew it was something more. Back at the tent, 15 minutes now till staging, I swapped my rear wheel as quickly as possible. Completely cooled down now, I jumped back on my bike to spin around before call ups. 10 minutes later I found myself on the line. I had a warm up under me that wasn’t ideal but there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to stay calm and knew I’d warm into the race eventually. The gun went off and we started up the first climb. I backed off and settled in fourth. I was still cold and legs didn’t feel awesome. My focus for the first half of the race was changed, I was now trying to warm into this grueling course and make my way up. On the decent I popped into second and focused on being as quick as possible on the descent. The downhill was fun, fast, and almost, almost, made up for the grueling climb to the top. Before I knew it I was at the bottom, ready to get to business for the second half of the race. I could see the leader right ahead. Through the feed zone I pushed hard. I was closing the gap on the leader and I caught her wheel up the climb. My legs were feeling heavy though and as we reached the last few steep switchbacks of the climb I lost a pedal dropped back a few seconds. I chased the leader down the trail trying to be as smooth as possible on the slick turns. She attacked, and I followed. On the final lap she had about a 20 second gap at the bottom of the climb. I put my head down and left it all out there on every climb. I crossed the line in second and as the first American. I’m happy with how it played out even when my legs were having an off day, and I’m excited to see what I'm capable of in the next few weekends of racing in Switzerland. Time to hop the pond and begin some Euro adventures. Stay tuned…
1 Comment
Bruce Mitchell
6/15/2017 07:12:43 am
Hi Savilia, Congratulations! What a great race in Missoula. Your incisive writing really put us there on the bike with you from pre-race mechanical issues to how your body felt before and during the race and as you worked your strategies through the course. Well done and thank you. Best of luck in Switzerland!
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AuthorSavilia Blunk, 20 | XCO MTB racer for Liv Racing Archives
March 2020
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