Eighteen...

18 PSI, that's how much tire pressure I had in my rear wheel at the finish of Fontana on Sunday. Whew, that's cutting it close! But first, how was the course?



What turned out to be a very challenging course with what I have affectionately termed the "elevator shaft" and the "drop zone" sections, Fontana was definitely a true test of mountain biking skills! The "elevator shaft" was granny gear steep. In fact it was actually mountain goat steep because that's all you were doing at the top was hoping your hooves would dig into the steep slope as you pushed your trusty rig up to the peaks crest! Then what followed was probably one of the most technical single tracks I have ridden lately with rock steps, turns and steeps that also required some running (errr...more accurately stumbling!) that was only made all the more interesting by the combination of oxygen starved lungs, burning legs and crosseyed vision from the granny goat climb seconds before hand...Unless you are Adam Craig who had a single 36T ringer up front!!! WHAT!!!



From there, the course was more familiar with a paved road climb, fun single tracks, and the same fast flat out power roads and that short technical climb through the rocks right before getting to the finishing zone...that little climb is a toughie with me running it once and lots of people never making it at all! Sheesh, maybe Nike should be a series sponsor!



Besides the Elevator Shaft, the Drop Zone was a typical Fontana drop down from single track to fire road with scary ledges and a mix of DEEP, fine silt to send tires askew and riders over the handlebars for a nice powdering...While Chris M. bombed the section with the aplomb of a seasoned downhiller, I found a fresh line through the bushes in typical course cutting (I like to think of it as course "improvement") red neck dirt-sickle fashion on our pre ride! Still, I was nervous. So when we were warming up we rode out to the section to see that I wasn't the only one thinking that the silt filled staircase of doom looked sketchy as "my line" was now fairly worn in. Sweet. No worries there!



In the race, the line worked perfect for both me and CM. However, I had another line hopping up and over a square edged rock, which I NAILED the dog poop out of on my 2nd lap and all I heard was "PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!" accompanied by a low rider feeling in the back of my bike. "Uh Oh" was an emphatic understatement. I hoped and prayed that my trusty stans sealant would hold my tire onto the rim for the remaining 2.5 laps as I tempered my riding style from "crash my way through" to "ease my way around" I focused on pretending to be as light and nimble as Brett so that my bike wouldn't even know this fatty was riding it!

In the end it all worked out well. CM made huge gains and moved up quite a bit in the 40+ pack despite a stacked field. Brett struggled with bad allergies but got some more experience none the less and I proved that if you try real hard to be as light as a pair of foam grips that you can indeed ride 18 psi right to the podium.

On the local front, Bri continued her string of first place finishes despite fighting the onset of a nasty bug. She rode to victory yet again and is making great improvements at each event!