Topham Racing

I had never even seen this trail before. Thanks to terrific advice from Daren Cottle and Michelle Hollingsed, however, I knew what I needed to do and it was just a matter of executing and hoping I had recovered enough from Wednesday’s race at Draper.

I got to the line late and ended up in the third row in a field of 18. Fortunately, this course starts on a paved road with about 1/2 mile of climbing before it turns to singletrack. Right out of the gate I started passing people because I knew that I needed to make it to the singletrack first. Toward the top of the paved road, I made it to the front of the pack. Jay Griffin said, “Where you going man?” I laughed and hoped that was the last time that Jay would be close enough to talk to me.

After recovering from the mad dash to the singletrack, I started to enjoy the ride. What a course! The backside of Mt. Timpanogos has got to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I started to worry less about the fact that I had not ridden this course before, and I simply enjoyed a nice bike ride in the best weather we’ve had all year.

After one lap, I still felt good. Jay and Keith Payne were both still right behind me, but I kept passing a few people from other classes, which gave me a bit of a cushion. Keith kept yelling that he was coming for me. It made me laugh, but also made me a little nervous that he might catch me.

Before I knew it, I was descending for the second time. I couldn’t see Jay or Keith, but I knew they couldn’t be far behind. I just kept telling myself to stay in control and keep my focus. I put together two really good laps of 37.38 and 38.37, respectively. I have never felt better in any race ever.

So I won my second race of the year. I think this one was better than the first one. We had a bigger field, and having raced just three days ago, it felt good just to survive, let alone win. Even if I hadn’t won this one, though, it would have been one of the best rides I have had all year. What a great day to ride such a great trail.

Before closing out this post, I should provide a little more information about Michelle Hollingsed. She is one of the best women mountain bike racers in Utah. The funny thing about Michelle is how our paths seem to cross every thousand years or so. We went to the same high school. Later, I went out with one of her friends. Now, we see each other at the races. I gave her a ride home from Sundance, and it was fun to catch up. That is probably the best part about Mt. Bike racing: the people you meet or, in some cases, reconnect with.

This race was supposed to take place on Memorial Day. After several days of rain and more rain in the early hours of Memorial Day, the race was postponed from Monday until Wednesday evening. They also shortened the laps for every category. My category raced 1 full lap and a 1/2 lap, instead of the usual two full laps. I was thankful not to have to climb the Corner Canyon road twice.

I started off great and took the lead until we had to cross the stream. For some reason I couldn’t see the temporary bridge they had put in place so I went straight into the stream. The water covered my shoes. I felt pretty stupid, but I only gave up one place. Keith Payne took us up the first stretch of single track until we reached the first stretch of wider road, when I took the lead again. I passed several slower riders from other groups and made it to the two mile hill climb well ahead of the pack. My plan going into this race had always been to climb this part of the course as fast as I could and take a lead into the descent.

After a while, I noticed someone was right on my wheel. It turns out that someone was hanging with me up the fire road: a road racer named Kelly Glenn, who hadn’t raced in a mountain bike race since St. George. I ended up making it to the top first, but he passed me just before the descent. This turned out to be a good thing, because he descended really fast and it was all I could do to keep up.

Once again I had a chain problem. It didn’t take long to fix, but in my haste to try to catch Kelly again, I lost control of the bike going over a temporary plank they had put over a muddy section of the trail. I almost went head first into a tree. I recovered from this, but it made it that much more difficult to think about catching up.

The rest of the race was fairly uneventful until the end. I maintained my second place position and didn’t have any problems. With about 200 yards to go, I decided I should look back and make sure Jay Griffin wasn’t behind me. Of course, he was. I don’t know how he caught up, but he did. So I sprinted the last 100 yards to make sure he didn’t catch me. I ended up beating him by only two seconds.

I learned a couple of things in this race. First, I need to fix my chain. Second, from now on I’m always going assume Jay is right behind me, unless he is already in front of me.

This is one of my favorite places to race. It is not necessarily the best course, but the location is beautiful and there is something cool about riding your bike on the same trails that were used for the 2002 Olympic cross country skiing competitions.

I should have won this race. I felt pretty good and jumped out in front. Dave Smith caught me after a while, but I stayed with him and passed him to take the lead again. I led all the way up the 1200 foot ascent. On the way down, I crashed, but amazingly I had enough of a lead that I didn’t lose position at all. About 3/4 the way through the first lap, Jay Griffin passed me. I caught up to him near the bottom and passed him to take the lead again.

I felt pretty strong for the first part of the second lap. Unfortunately, I looked back and saw that Dave Smith had passed Jay Griffin and was gaining on me. Eventually he passed me, and right at that moment I had a bad shift that took my chain off the rings. I had no choice but to flip the bike over and put the chain back on. It took me all of 30 seconds, but that was long enough to see Jay Griffin go cruising by. I caught him on the ascent, and I figured I could pass him at the bottom like I had done the first lap. However, on the descent, I quickly realized that I had hurt my wrist in the crash on the first lap. This made descending more painful the second time around, and Dave and Jay extended their leads.

I did my best to make up time, and I came close to catching them. Dave finished first, then Jay then me. Our times were all pretty close.

I learned a lot in this race. Mostly, I learned that it is easy to lose focus when you are in the lead and feeling good. It is something I need to work on.