Miles gets 2nd in the CCCX Mnt Bike Cat 3 race

Where- Fort Ord, Monterey CA


When- June 24th 9am

Race- 45-55 CAT3 mens

Stats- 3 laps, 5 miles each, 15 total

Fire roads, double and single track.

Team mate- Dave T in the race after me. (Nice 3rd place finish!)

My race was at 9am, so I left MP early to make sure I had time to sign up and warm up. I had time to pre ride about half a lap and felt pretty good at the start.



The race starts on pavement and funnels into single track pretty quickly. Starts are key, being in the back of the pack when you funnel onto the single track makes for a tough time passing.

As we sprint down the road to the dirt section I make sure I am in a good spot. I end up 3 wheel and follow my competition. I visually mark the two in front of me and don't let them out of sight.

There is a bit more climbing than usual, and I think to myself that this will be to my advantage. Towards the end of the first lap we come up on slower racers from the race in front of us.

I bobble a bit and have trouble getting around a few of these guys since I came up on them in tight single track with not much room to pass. I start to loose track of 1st and 2nd place ahead of me.

Finally I get by the slower riders and look up the trail now and then to see if I can see my competitors. I've lost them for now. When we come around the finish line area for the first time

the timer shouts 3rd place. I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to advance. I wasn't sure how far ahead they were but I decided to hammer the middle lap and then hopefully back it off a bit at the end.

Within the blur of the next lap, passing slower riders, and concentrating on not going down in the deep sand sections, I guess I passed 2nd place and didn't even notice. The next thing I know,

I'm going through the finish area and they shout 2nd place! What? are you sure? I think to myself. OK, I'll take it, but I needed a rest so I backed it off for just a few minutes to recover, being careful not to

let 3rd get close. Into the last lap, things were clicking for me and I felt good, so brought it back up to normal race pace. At about that point I caught a glimpse of 3rd place coming up behind me.

If I wanted to keep my well earned 2nd place spot I would need to wick it up to max for the rest of the race. Great, not what I had planed, and not what my body wanted to hear, but it was do or die.

I thought to myself, I didn't skip golf today with my buddies to get caught and passed on my last lap! OK, off we went. I had him on the climbs and he would catch me on the descends, the flowing flat stuff was

pretty even. I decided on the last climb that I would give it all I had and with my weakness ahead of me, then try and hang on to the finish. Once I got to the top of the climb I had pulled a bit of a gap

on him, so I really concentrated on going as smooth and as fast as I could the rest of the way. I definitely pushed it the last few miles. I had a few close calls and just tried to keep it fast and on two wheels.

On the last descend into the finish area, I could hear his bike chattering behind me, maybe 5-6 bike lengths behind. The next thing I heard was Dave T screaming at me at the top of his lungs (thanks Dave!).

In fact it scarred me, because i was in concentration mode at the time. That gave me the extra umph to give it one last hard effort to the finish line, although I had to be careful because there was a sketchy

off camber turn just before the last straight a way. I made it cleanly through everything and got across the line 30s behind 1st place and 6s in front of 3rd.



I felt good about holding on to my position, and pushing it through the end, and I have the poison oak to prove it!



Thanks for reading

-Miles