Fontana Dam Jam

This past weekend I competed in my final major XC Mountain bike race of the year at Fontana Dam. The rain held off all weekend, but the humid 90+ degree temperatures still made it into the western North Carolina mountains. It was my first time racing Fontana, and it was truly an epic XC race course. The climbs were absolutely brutal in both steepness and technical difficulty, and the descents were blazing fast and technical. Given the difficulty, the race organizers let each of the CAT1 expert waves of riders vote for 3 or 4 laps. The under 30 crowd voted first and came out almost unanimously in favor of 3 laps. When the 30-39 vote came up, I quickly threw my hand up in favor of 3 laps. Unfortunately the 30-39 age-group is overrun with bicycle masochists who favored 4 laps. At 35-40 minutes per lap for top amateurs, that worked out to very long XC race. I tried to stay relaxed and bounced between 3rd and 4th positions for the first 3 laps. Despite being well hydrated, the fatigue set in on the last lap. Fatigue quickly escalated to leg cramps so brutal that I was forced to walk several climbs and even stop for a minute to rest. I cramped out of podium contention in 5th place, but gained a lot of insight into my weaknesses and race preparation. It was a humbling race experience that I look forward to improving on next year. Even though the race didn’t go as well as planned, I had the loving support of family with me, and it was a great excuse to drive the Dragons Tail!