Day four - XC

After a big pasta dinner, lots of stretching, not too mention a complete overhaul by the romantic dim hotel light (my new cranks did draw some blood with it too), it was XC time. Same course as last year, and after the previous days rain, conditions couldn't have been better. Well, maybe a little less wind would have been nice, but hey, I'm still smiling. Very fast paced, right from the get go, one lap of the Laguna Seca race track, then down a supper fast double track stretch to about 3km of twisty and fast singletrack. Like usual, I went out a little bit too hard, and my body would have definitely been happy with just one lap, lap two was strickly survival mode, but after last years forced DNF (mangled chain) I just couldn't drop out. Alison Sydor stopped early in the first lap to fix her bike, so I was ahead of her yet again for almost a full lap, until she blew by me up the long final climb back to the race track. 40 miles and just over 3 hours later, I dragged my sorry butt over the finish line in 14th position, managing to snag two spots back in the last couple km.

After stuffing myself with a great Sushi dinner, we made a bee-line to nearest Baskin Robbins and had a double scoop of mint chocolate chip and strawberry on a chocolate dipped waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles.......hey, my watch said I burnt enough calories for that.

Again, I'm extremely glad to have made the trip south for the Sea Otter Classic, always a great way for me to start off the summer, and work on my tan (oh yeah, and miss the last couple days of classes). Back at home now, I'm getting ready for finals, moving, working a little and still trying to train my full schedule, so I'm going to be anti social for a week, but I'm really going to need a beer come friday night.

Sorry, no photos yet, troubles with the camera. But there's some good photos from the week on Canadian Cyclist.