Bordertown Challenge, a rare one.

Early this morning Lyna and I packed up and headed west to Oasis Nevada for the Bordertown Chalenge. Having never ridden out there and the fact that it was a 25 mile loop format meant going in cold. I got in a short warmup on teh first mile or so, nice flat desert singletrack. So off the start, Sam has a weed in his drive train and i go to the front, i hammered the first 3 miles on singletrack and opened a gap on the field. At about mile 5 the 2300 foot 5.5 mile climb started, I just kept it clean here, spinning on the steeps, hammering the flatter sections. I passed one of the pro's a short way up and by the top of the climb I was on the wheels of the next 2 pro's. The 2.5 mile descent of the top was sketch and I made it down still in the lead and safe, At about mile 17 I cracked on a steep exposed climb, I saw Rich and someone else in the distance and tried to hold it together, luckily only about 2.25 miles of the remaining 8 were climbs. I was railing the DH and accelerating on the flats. 5200 feet of climbing later, I came into the finish with the win, my first ever ICUP expert win, I am super psyched as it is a rare occurence. I led from the giddy'up to whoa. Rich was a minute and a half behind me for second, Chad H was a further 2.5 behind him. I am gonna savor this sweet day for a while, well at least till Brian Head NMBS next week.

Lyna came in 4th sport women after a dropped/stuck chain in the first 2 miles and stopping to help a delirious racer 5 miles from the finish. A good day for both of us.

Here is the elevation profile, about 900 feet short of the claimed 9000 foot summit, I tell you, we climbed enough.