MTB State Championships

Dave says: I am not the fastest mountain biker in Utah, but on Saturday I had an unexpected result that is certainly my cycling career highlight to date. It was the state championship race at Solitude Ski Resort and the sun was out for one of the hottest and hardest courses of the year. It started fast and it was Greg Gibson who led up the first long climb at a blistering pace. I was like, "who is this dude?" since apparently Greg has been rocking it back east. Half a lap in, the field was gone and I had a bit of a lead on the technical descent but Greg showed off his skills every time by putting time into me on the downhills.

Despite the heat, I felt pretty good and when we came around for the last climb, I knew that I had to do something big or risk losing the race on the final descent. I cranked that last climb as hard as I could and dug deep. It was enough and I held it together down the rocky slopes for the win. It was an exciting battle that has also temporarily put me into the ICUP lead over other more talented but more absent pro racers. Thanks to Alisha who came to hand me bottles and cheer me on and to Kuhl for being a great team. Check out MTBRaceNews for the full report