Escalante Days XC Race

Escalante Days XC Race turned out to be a good race for me. I don't do much true xc racing anymore and this was my 2nd effort at the shorter xc racing this year so I was a bit nervous on how I would do. I surprised myself with a great effort. I had to be on the gas 100% the whole time to keep with the front pack of single speeders. The 3 mile climb up to the trail head of Boggy Draw was the make or break section of this race it turned out to be in contention for a top spot. I apologize to the other riders for flipping the bird at you when I attacked on the road. LOL!!! Four of us battled it out all the way into Bean Canyon before it started to break apart. Dave got away from me and I couldn't close the gap on the climb out of Bean. I was hell bent to hold off Myles and Steve on the climb out of Bean Canyon. I was able to hold on for the 2nd place overall in the single speed class and 1st in my age group in a time of 2:07:58. I was 58 seconds behind Dave Lefevere who took the overall win in the single speed class. Fellow BWR teammate Steve Reiter came in 2 minutes later with Myles, Paul Adams and Shawn Gregory coming in next in that order. The gaps between riders definitely spread out a bit in the climb out of Bean Canyon. I just kept the throttle at 100%. I felt great the whole race and was elated to be able to dice it up at the front with the other strong riders. A true confidence builder.
35 miles, 2,340 feet of climbing.


Me coming into the finish.

Me all smiles after finishing with a good effort. I was pretty happy.

Congrats to Dave on a fine race.

Fellow BWR teamamte Steve coming in for a 3rd overall SS finish. Super strong.

Shawn finishing and still smiling after getting whooped up on in his backyard.

Giving Shawn a hard time. Notice the sweat stains on my back. It was a hard, hard effort.

Happy racers. A good day on the bike for all.
(left to right) Shawn Gregory, Paul Adams, myself and Steve Reiter.

Raffle win...seat bag which I gave to Laura.

Age group results. A decent sized class. One of the bigger ones for the day.

c="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHIZKixH9Pg4ALs58-VvX16LPIPX2t2SVX8nCHV2j3o-m7sy4cmdN2DU7hoqhYry9aKbrvPMXZOr4_QTrl-ZCIfJqlCSC1E5ZG-RxgldgVfWdIfNZo4JB924fKZ0aUhxK08Q4lks2rkQ-/s400/Escalante+Days+022.jpg">
BWR teamamtes, Jeni and Rebecca. Jeni 1st in womens expert SS and Rebecca 3rd in womens expert class. A good day for Big Wheel. 4 of us with podium finishes.

Shawn collecting his prize money.

Paul collecting his prize money.

Show me the money...30 bones for 1st. Beer money.