AMC Stage 3: Dark Hollow

I rode much of stage 2 within sight of Pua Sawicki.  She was riding strong and was on her way to the overall victory.  So it should tell you something that I rode much of stage 3 within sight of Heather Irmiger, who finished second to Pua in the last two stages and was the fifth woman overall.  That’s Heather in pink in the photo above.  You can see me just behind her, coming through the trees.  

The morning of the race I had no motivation to race.  I forced myself to eat breakfast.  I couldn’t believe that I had to go out and do another 48 miles of racing when what I really wanted to do was stay in bed.  When I got on my bike and rode to the start, I was strictly in survival mode. 

The course was two laps around the NORBA course.  I had heard that the descent down Dark Hollow was very technical and very long.  That kind of news doesn’t sit well with a poor downhiller like me.  But before I got to the descent, I had to nearly to the top of Brian Head Peak—twice—just to make sure I was good and tired before starting down the treacherous descent. 

That’s where I started riding with Heather.  I think she was in survival mode too.  She told me her hardtail was beating her up, which made me feel even slower because she passed me on our first time down Dark Hollow.  But I was glad she had passed me because otherwise she would have seen me walk down a few of the sections that were too much for me.  It was the most technical descent I have ever raced down.  

I caught and passed Heather on the second lap.  That’s when she looked like she was just trying to survive.  By the time I got to the Dark Hollow descent again I was so tired that I was riding over the sections that I had walked down the first time.  I think my exhaustion was suppressing my fear of flying over the handlebars, and somehow it worked because I was able to clean the whole descent without getting off. 

My time for Stage 3 was 4:51; my second lap was 12 minutes slower than the first lap.  My overall time was 13:44, good enough for 18th place overall at 2:45 behind Jeremiah Bishop, the overall winner.