I was not deceived by the relatively warm temperature as I was getting ready to leave. I knew the wind would be blowing once we got out to Finley. Sure enough, my direst predictions came true ... windy and cold. The wind was coming from the northwest so that meant that as soon as we crossed Ayers Road, we would be going directly into the teeth of the wind. Before the race started, there was a vote called to decide how may laps the Sport class wanted to do. Despite the valiant efforts of a few riders, it was decided that we would stay with the two lap format.

My race strategy was simple. The night before, I had affixed four sets of Christmas Bells to my handlebar and top tube. I'd also wound a beaded garland around my rack. What I was hoping was that the racket that the bells made would so disorient the rider(s) in front of me that they would let me get in front just so they wouldn't have to hear the bells ring. Once I passed them, the garland would make them laugh so hard that they would hit a rock and fall down.

I had gone out before the race started and warmed up on the course. When the call came to start the Sport class, I tried to stay with the stronger riders (just about everyone out there) for as long as I could. I didn't do too bad over the climb and was actually able to still see the leaders after the Rock Garden section. When we got down to where the trail crosses Ayers Road, we took a slightly different track than the last race. Went up the little climb and hung a left up a relatively gentle climb … which just happened to be directly into the howling gale. Once we got to the top of the climb, which ended at the big intersection, we took a singletrack which led us to the TOP of Hell's Canyon. Backwards through the Canyon then a hard left onto some more singletrack leading us back to the warp speed singletrack that heads back to the Start/Finish.

Somehow, I managed to keep Craig Fortner within my sights on the first lap. I was tracking him through the Rock Garden when I overshifted and tried to wedge my chain between my spokes and cogset. I got the chain out without doing any damage and tracked Craig down where we crossed Ayers Road. Kinda strange that I was able to do that but I was feeling pretty good (turns out Craig bonked hard and just barely managed to wobble in). I passed Craig, even though he threatened to not give me a ride back home, and tried to present as little frontal area to the wind as possible. That little climb hurt on the second lap. I could see two riders way out in front of me but they drafted off each other and easily pulled away. I didn't twist my rear derailleur up this time and managed to finish 5th. I'LL TAKE IT!!!

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