Laddie's Loppet

Headed up to Maplelag resort for the weekend "Laddies Loppet" stage race over labor day. The Maplelag resort and Richard's family put on a great hosting for all. The festivities started with the time-trial on Saturday morning, which went pretty well, allowing me to post a 2nd in Comp open. The STXC came on Saturday afternoon and it started out fast with Wally leading out the group. After hanging with the leadout group, I ended up overshifting the chain & causing some major chain-suck. This forced me into doing more catch-up. I eventually caught back up and was able to finish out with a 3rd place; not bad for my first STXC race!

The events continued with the final event being the XC race on Sunday. After cheering on fellow team-mates in the citizen & sport races, it was time to line up for our event. The start was fast, as usual with a Wally taking the hole-shot. After staying on his wheel, I was able to pass him before going into the first set of drops. At that point, I started to push the pace hard and was able to hold the race-lead until the last 1/3 of the final lap when a strong Seth Carlson passed me up. At that point, we both had a pretty good gain on the majority of the field. I was starting to slow soon then cuz of the course intensity. Finally, I was able to close out some of the gap between Seth and me for a final finish of 2nd overall, 1st in age-group. It was a great recap to the weekend, which allowed me to collect the overall GC leader in Comp open.

The changes to the XC course this year were incredible and made for a definitely challenging and exciting race.

I definitely look forward to next year out there.