After a 3 week break from cyclocross, the crew was back at it up in the high country this weekend. The combination of near freezing temperatures and high altitude made the race weekend a challenging one for our kids. We had 3 juniors make the trip to Flagstaff - Liam for boys 9-14, and Emma and Avery for girls 9-18. Day one's course gave us some interesting obstacles - a steep rocky drop right at the start, followed by a maze with 4 barriers in a row, and ending with a steep and sandy run-up. It was an exhausting course, but a fun one!
Liam got a slow start, finding himself towards the back of the boys field. He was able to work his way through and had a commanding lead after lap one. He was able to build on that lead all the way to the finish to snag his second win of the season!
Emma and Avery battled the entire race, with Avery leading for most of it. Emma was able to overtake her in the last lap to snag her second win of the season. Avery came in close behind to grab 2nd.
Ft Tuthill - Day 2
The temperatures dropped by about 10 degrees for day 2, leaving the juniors to "warm-up" in sub-freezing temperatures on a course covered in frost! The course for day 2 was reversed offering a steep and loosed decent to start off the race and a steep, rocky run-up to finish. The barricade maze was reduce to 2 versus 4 from the previous day. The set-up for day 2 was faster, but the cold weather presented some unique challenges to our young riders.
Liam was able to get off the line faster for day 2, catapulting into first place right off the start. He continue to build on his lead each lap, coming in an impressive 1 min, 30 seconds ahead of 2nd place!
Avery had a rough start, crashing early in lap one. She hit her knee hard on her fall, but got up and soldiered on. While it wasn't the result she was hoping for, her determination to finish the race was awesome to see! She came 4th overall.
Emma had difficulty dealing with the cold on the morning of day 2. She fought hard to catch the 1st place rider, but fell short in the end. She found herself locked in a battle for 2nd with Bella. Emma was able to dig deep to keep 2nd place.
There were many lessons learned after our 2 days in Flagstaff. Racing in the cold is hard! Getting warmed-up and staying warm was very challenging for the kids. Racing at altitude (Flagstaff sits at just under 7000 ft) is also hard. The combination of the cold, dry air and the high altitude created tough conditions that these riders hadn't seen before. In spite of this, they raced their hearts out! And they had fun doing it. There were smiles for miles up in Flagstaff this weekend!! We are all excited for another fun race weekend next week!
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