Yesterday my dad and I raced (and crushed) the last stage of Pisgah. We started with a nice neutral start on the road on which my legs took forever to start working again. Then we stopped on a quiet section of road and started the actual stage.
I ducked in on my dad's wheel and we spun up the long uphill gravel section. We hit the top of the hill and started down Butter Gap right behind Jenna Downey, the woman who has been in third in the women's category most stages. I eventually managed to come by her and open a gap. By then my legs were starting to come back and I was feeling strong. The trails were awesome! There was less hiking than the previous days and it felt a lot like the trails back home.
After Butter Gap we hit a gravel section on which we passed Annie Pharr, the woman in third place. We pushed hard to drop her and caught up to Ondrej Benjik, another Ontario racer who is crazy fast. We pounded it out on the road with him for a little while, until we hit the gravel climb, where he dropped us. We spun as fast as we could up the long gravel climb and did our best to stay ahead of Annie. I figured if we could stay out of sight around the corners we could stay out of mind. She chased hard though, and gradually she caught, and passed, us. We topped out the climb and hit the Enduro section hoping to catch her on the downhill. The Enduro section of this stage was about 7 km long and was made for cross-country mountain bike racers. It was all corners and very flowy. It was a lot easier on the arms than all the other descents this week. I'd say it was the perfect trail to end the race off with.
We gained time on Annie on the downhill and I managed to catch and pass her. This time I held her off and finished ahead. This put me in third for the stage in the open-women's category, which I was super happy with. This means that next year, when I'm old enough to race on my own in that category, I can crush it and hopefully go for the win!
The biggest surprise of the day was when we checked the Enduro results to find that I came second and my teammate, Tascha, came third. We hadn't expected to beat the locals on the smoothest downhill of the race. To add to the excitement, we came second and third to Georgia Gould, a retired pro who won bronze at the 2012 Olympics and is a four time USA national champion.
Overall, my dad and I won the duo coed category, beating Georgia Gould and her husband. We had a lot of fun racing together and pushing our limits. We met so many amazing people racing Pisgah and everyone was super encouraging and friendly! We shared lots of good stories and laughs. Hopefully we'll be back next year for more early season training!
Stage Overview Video:
Next Race: Ontario Cup #1 at Woodnewton