Jay Richards

Racing action kicked off at 8am today with the Semi-Pros and Experts. Up at 6 to get ready for Jake's race. Disappointed to see only 2 other 15-16jrx riders line up with Jake. Jake rode most of the first climb with the guy in front of him but not able to hang on. Still had a great race riding solid for three laps for a hour and a half racing on the day. He caught three riders in the Jr expert 17-18 which started 1 minute in front of him and was probably the youngest rider in the JR expert field so great experience against some of the top jr riders in the country. The kid that beat him also won Deer Valley. Jake probably had a bit too much to eat to close to the race, getting a side ache, so we will make an adjustment on that for VT.


Ben Portilla leading the Semi-Pro race. Went on to finish second. Having a nice season after getting hit by a car in January and being off the bike for a month.
Bender coming through the feed zone. Was 10th on the day in Semi-Pro.
Jenna Zander in the XC. 11th overall and 5th American in Pro women.
Kyia coming through after first lap. 33rd on the day Pro women.
Start of the Pro mens race, Todd Wells getting the hole shot.
I was in the back. Dusty and bottlenecked after the start. Started to move up on the first lap, catching about 10 riders and moving into the 40's then overheated a bit, and alarms going off in the body rode it out and felt better last lap. Got stung by a bee at end of third lap and flatted at the top of the downhill. Was on pace to be around a hour 55 but flat stopped that. Super hard, challenging course with long climbs and then bumpy/rocky downhills that were hard for me to recover on. Super fast with winning time at 1:35.
Compared my time after three laps with the winning time in the Masters 35-39 and was pretty much the same.


Alpe de Huez climb.


Marko Lalonde coming through the feed zone. Very nice finish coming in 17th on the singlespeed 29r. Brother Jesse flatted and had to call it a day.
TJ Woodruff having a nice race at 26th place.

Short track and Super D on tap for tomorrow. Should be fun. Super D might be kinda nuts but will ride it once and take it from there.