Last weekend was round three of the Rocky Mountain Enduro Circuit, held in the small town of Quitaque, Texas. Erin, Ron, and I loaded the van on Friday afternoon and got most of the 9 hour drive out of the way. The promoting club holds a fun GP style race on Saturday, so our goal was to get to the race site before Erin's 9:30 AM start.
Erin rode a great race, and despite a mediocre start, finished 3rd out of 11 girls. The only downside was that I could tell we were in for a really dusty weekend. I decided I didn't want to fight the dust on Saturday, and just saved my energy for the enduro on Sunday. We spent the rest of the day finishing up bike preparations and visiting with friends. We checked into our room at the local Bed and Breakfast, and it was definitely an experience to remember.
With the time change on Saturday night, our night's sleep felt a little short. Luckily our hilarious hotel owner gave us a nice personal wake up call (there weren't any phones, haha). He made us some eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast, and we were off to the race.
The day was broken into 6 special tests. The first section was the same course used for Saturday's GP race. I got a decent jump off the line, but blew a sharp corner after a fast straight. Don Moen was on my row, and apparently he raced the GP on Saturday and knew that was coming! He got around me and I followed his dust to the finish of the section. He was laughing at the checkout and said "You didn't ride the GP, did you?!".
The next 5 tests were all a little outside town in the Caprock Canyon State Park. I had a great time in test 2, probably a result of some frustration in test 1. The 3rd section didn't go quite as well... I stalled my bike, had a collision with a slower rider that pulled over right into me, missed a turn, and struggled in the dust. I didn't want to continue the day in that fashion, so I settled in a little bit and tried to ride smart for the last 3 tests. I felt really good at the start of each section, but when I caught some dust I had to back off and wait for a mistake or good passing opportunity.
When the scores were finalized I was 19th overall for the day. This race always has a big group of fast riders, so I was really happy to be in the top 20. I felt really good on the bike, and had some great test times. Hopefully I can continue to improve by eliminating some mistakes. Erin took another 3rd place and most of my RMEC comrades also had really good results! I'll be traveling back down to Texas on the first weekend in April for the Lonestar National Enduro and ISDE qualifier. Check back soon for more updates!