The Whiskey 50 has a reputation of being a super fun race and drawing a really big pro field. It did not disappoint one bit! I had a great race, I ended up in 7th overall in a field that wasn't missing any pro women that normally race the national races (expect Lea Davison). I wasn't sure where to set my expectations since it's more than double the distance and time that I'm used to racing. I paced myself fairly well and by the time I was half way done, at the bottom of Skull Valley, I was in 8th. As we stared the climb out of there, I could see Evelyn gaining on Georgia and Mical. But I was gaining on them as well. Evelyn passed them and they let her go, so I thought I'd give it a go! I caught them and climbed with them for a bit then decided to go on around. Georgia stuck to my wheel for quite a while. However, by the top of the climb as we entered into the single track I'd put around 20 seconds on her. I knew that wasn't enough of a lead to hold her off in the single track. She passed me near the top and I just hung on the 7th the rest of the time. I was pretty spent and had some cramping on the descent, but I pedaled through it. I came around the second to last corner on the pavement in town to see Chloe up ahead. I didn't realize it was her until the last corner at which point I started to sprint to catch her. She still rolled over 1 second in front of me! Dang it, another Iceman repeat! I'm still happy to be racing with these world class athletes and I feel lucky to see so many neat trails in the US!

Just before aid station #1 and the descent into Skull Valley (Photo Credit: MTBRaceNews.com)

Suffering at the very end of Whiskey 50 (Photo Credit: Kenny When)