My son and I made the journey to Missoula for the 4th round in the ProXCT. We had excellent weather and perfect trail conditions amongst the tall pines in Montana. I had front row call up and went for the hole-shot and got it next to Lea Davison! We climbed at the front for a few minutes then when we hit the single-track we narrowed into single file. I kept up a good pace on the climbs and posted my personal fastest descents. This year I chose to ride my hard tail (The Jamis Dakota D29 Team) with the SRAM Reverb Seat Dropper. That may seem like a strange combination. However, I'm leading the way, bringing droppers to the XC scene! AND...this course was a hard tail course, at least 95% of it was. Then there were the super tight switch backs, some of which had a a bit of a drop off in the middle of them. Having a dropper helped me get around those corners super efficiently and confidently! So yes, a hard tail with a dropper was the right choice for me! I finished in 14th and hold my 15th place standing in the overall for the ProXCT.

As always my Stan's NoTubes Valors were perfect for the course. With 900 feet of climbing per lap I wanted the stiffness they provide. We raced 5 laps, which meant by time I was done racing (and including my warm up), I'd climbed over 5,000 feet in under 2.5 hours! That's when you want light and stiff!

I wore my Julbo Ultra glasses which feature the best transition lens I've used. The Zebra lens can handle the bright sun and the transition through the thick trees in Montana. My POC Octal kept my head safe and my scalp cool with the wide vents.

This captures the great feeling of the weekend, having my boy at my race with me!

The start line

Climbing on one of the 5 laps which gained 900' per lap!

My boy!

Parting shot