Had a great race this past weekend grabbing the win at the Missouri State Championships XC race. My legs are coming around better and better as the year goes on. The XC race this past weekend was no joke. It was held on some super fun trails at Greensfelder State Park. Short, punchy 1-4 minute climbs around the course split up with some technical, rocky terrain throughout the 7.5 mile course which we repeated 3 times.

Photo Credit: Dave Vehige
Railing one of the corners at the Missouri State XC Champ race

I gunned it from the get go getting the hole shot and setting a high tempo. The technical singletrack came early on, and I was determined to hit it first. The legs burned, but I said h_ll no, and pushed harder to get to the singletrack in first. Goal #1 set and a nice one! Luckily the technical singletrack after that played to my advantage. I continued my hard pace feeling pretty good and slowly put a second here and second there on my competition. Not an easy task, but my legs and fitness are coming around. This race was a true example of that.

This coming weekend I am defending my title at Syllamos Revenge. Last year I had a great race here and set a new course record just under 6 hours. I am hoping for similar form this year. I arrived here in Arkansas to pre-ride the technical, and very rocky terrain two days ago. I love these trails: fast, flowy, technical, and very little of the despised fire roads. Gotta love that part the most! Lots of pure singletrack at it’s best.

I had the opportunity to take out multiple riders on the Missouri XC State Champs course at Greensefelder State Park prior to this weekend’s race on Saturday. We went over multiple line choices, and also reviewed how to ride the technical, and rocky ascents/descents on the course.

Thanks to everyone that came to the free clinic. More of these to come in the near future.

Here’s a few snap shots of some of the sections we worked on: