Race the Ranch 2010

The first race of the season has come to a close. I managed to get a 7th place finish in Junior which is my best finish to date. Be that as it may I am not completely satisfied with my result, but with less than 2 seconds separating me and a podium position this result gives me confidence that I can be on the podium very soon. I am taking my result with a grain of salt and using it to motivate me to train harder and continue improving.

My race run went fairly well. I lost some time after getting bogged down in the famous Kamloops dust but as far as having a game plan and sticking to it my run was almost perfect. I had planned to conserve my legs a little for the bottom rock garden bunny hop due to the fact that casing it would mean catastrophe, but now I know that I could have pushed it harder. I always look back at race runs and try to learn from them and every race I compete in seem to teach me something new. This weekend's lesson was to trust my training and not hold back.

The race itself was really well run and I am pretty impressed by the fact that they had an elite and junior practice only. This was fantastic because it cut down the long lines and you didn't have to pass slower riders on your way down the course. Despite the uncharacteristic weather conditions (hail and rain!) the course held up extremely well in comparison to last year only deteriorating in a few places.

Me and my teammate Dan also attended the Follow Me premiere Saturday night after practice. All I can say is I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of that movie, it was phenomenal! It was the first premiere that I have ever been to and it was heaps of fun and a great representation of mountain bike culture which only continued to remind me of why I love the sport so much. All in all the weekend was awesome and I can't wait to get out and continue racing and riding for the rest of the season!

Evan Blackwell