Cholla

Dave says: "In the Men’s race everyone seemed to be watching the Monavie-Cannondale team. The race today would complete a week long training camp for the team which began last Saturday with the Fontana City National... Right from the start, Monavie riders Gillespie, Alex Grant, Jeremiah Bishop, and Bryan Alders charged to the front. David Welsh (Kuhl/Scott) tried his best to ruin the Monavie party. Welsh even briefly took the lead on lap one but the Green Machine would not be denied today." (MTBRaceNews.com)

This was the best version of the Cholla that I've done in four years with a somewhat pleasant desert course and only a moderate amount of wind (compare to weed whacker-made single track and sandstorms of years past). The weather was cold and snowy on the way down from SLC, but I think it was Mona-Vie who warmed things up with their stacked team. When an Olympian steps out of the van on your local race scene, you instantly know that it's time for a little humility lesson. My legs were burning on the first hill and they were gone.

At the end, it was a fight with Chris Holley and a guy named Drew from Colorado. Drew attacked, then I countered and pinned it for the last mile or two to the finish. I turned myself inside out in the process but took fourth and had a good race overall. It was fun times with the Kuhl/Scott crew as usual. Today I went road biking with Alisha and she mopped the floor with me as I cracked after a couple sets of intervals and couldn't even hold her wheel.