My favorite Race

The NVDC also known as the Napa Valley Dirt Classic is by far my favorite race. It usually lands on the weekend right after the Sea Otter Classic so the mood is always mellow and the crowd in good spirits. Basically everyone is so tired from the weekend prior that they just want to get out and have a nice low key race. The other part of this race is for the past two years, this one included, the weather is usually ify. This year it rained fairly substantially the day and night prior to the race! But as I awakened to my surprise there was sunshine! I went and picked up a friend of mine and headed north!

We arrived the PCU or Pacific Union College and headed up to reg! It's a yolk local race! Lots of familiar smiling faces ready to tear it up... This race definitely has a following and it's not because it's an easy race.

Once reg'ed and geared up I head over to my buddy Ray's car and jump onto the trainer to warm-up. This mainly consists of chatting with others and looking at number plates to see who else is racing in my category. I count 3 but at the start he counts 4. They combined the Pro Women with the experts and of course us pushy pro's take the front line. And we are off! It starts with a nice jaunt through the parking lot before we jump on to the single track, myself and a velo bella Barbara Howe deside that we are going to take immediate control of this race. We lead into the single tack and then it opens up onto a fire road followed by a switch back...we immidiately have nice gap on the rest of the group. We hang a sharp right up the slip and slide, which I definitlely do (on my hands and knees) and then up onto the flats. Here Barbara and I start to get to know each other and start chit chatting. Did i mention it was a low key race? Increasing or gap on the group we make our way over to the technical single track. I love this race because it's mostly all single track through the redwoods and ends with a long brutal climb out just to make sure your good and tired.

We start to turn into the single track and Barbara over shoots a turn and I head into the trail first. She is still on my tail...until we start climbing. I proceed to try and get a gap and figure if I can get out of sight I can also get out of mind. Sure enough it works. My friend Ray (who started before me) comes up my side and passes, "Where in the heck did you come from" " I missed a stupid turn." and then he informs me that when he passed Barbara she said that she had lost contact! So I keep plugging as hard as I can..my legs feel great and take the precautions to stay upright! Finally I hit the final hell hill and wow it is not nearly as bad as remember it. My fitness must be better, i was actually able to climb just about all of it except one nasty slippy slidie turn. Finally make it to the top and head for home! Just to make sure we are extra good and muddy they send us through this huge mud pit! then the turn onto the track and MY FIRST PRO WIN! I am officially $120 richer!