Western States Grand Prix

We have a few weeks off from national competition so we made the trip out for the Western States Grand Prix which took place of the famous Virginia City race.  The race was held on the other side of the mountains from VC and the race had a very good turnout with nearly the 400 rider limit completely full.  We had a mass start broken up into three rows of A, B, and C riders.  I got a good jump at the start filing in about the fourth position behind a couple of Miran riders.  Brian didn't get his bike fired on the first kick but got through the first couple of turns very well settling into the top ten.  Right off the start we went into the rocky road from hell.  This road is fifteen miles long and is all rocks.  There are lots of small loose rocks on top of the solid rocks so the road is really really  dangerous and absolutely no fun at all to ride.  I had one of the riders ahead of me fall down and then Brian caught and passed me as well as Craig Wesner and someone else on a 500.  I didn't feel comfortable at all in the loose rocks decided to play it safe.  After we got through the rocks the trail got lots better and we rode on some decent roads and even got into some hills and off camber sections that were fun.  I got by the 500 on the first lap and got into some clean air.  Brian charged forward getting by Wesner and was working on the rider in second place.  The laps were 40 miles long  but seemed to go by quickly.  Illinois Troy made the trip out to pit for us and did an excellent job getting our IMS quickfills full and a fresh pair of tinted Smith goggles each lap.  Brian got around the rider for second place and settled into a safe pace not wanting to charge in these conditions and risk an injury.  On the next lap local #1 Rob Zimmerman got around me dropping me back a spot.  On  the last lap Brian caught up to the leader at the end of the lap and got around on the inside of a hill.  I caught up to the rider in front of me and tried to get around but crashed in the dust.  I caught up again and tried to pass and knocked my knee on a rock.  That pissed me off a bit so I caught back up and made the pass and talking to Brian after the race we both made our passes for position in the exact same section of the track.  Brian held on to take the win followed by the Miran champ, Rob Zimmerman, and I finished a bit back in fourth position.

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