UCI 2023 - UCI Pro Cup - Fayetteville - 04/16/2023

TLDR: This was a national-level race. I got to meet my heroes, took pictures with them, and watched them race. I took 7th place in Jr 13-14 category and had a great time. I had so much fun, and it was overall an unforgettable experience. 

We left at 6:00 AM on Friday to be able to get up to the race venue by 3, because Fayetteville is 8 hours away. We rode to the race venue from the Airbnb, and it was really steep to get up to the top of the mountain, where the venue was. We had to ride up a very steep road, then turn onto a green trail with windy switchbacks to get the rest of the way up. 

When we arrived, we rode around a bit and found Reese Walker. She's on the Bulldogs, and she had just finished a short track race with an outstanding finish of 6th, just 8 seconds off of 5th. 

After we talked to Reese, we kinda stood around by the Orange Seal tent, and I thought I recognized someone from Pinkbike Academy, one of our favorite TV shows. Addison, our favorite player from season one, who had come back for seasons 2 and 3 as a guest mechanic was there and working full-time for Orange Seal. I got to talk to him and get a picture of him, and to be honest, I fangirled just a smidge. 

We walked around a bit and got a hang of the venue, and then it was time for pre-ride. The amateur course was super technical compared to the races in Texas, but it was a different type of technical. There were jumps and drops and gaps and man-made rock gardens, and we found ourselves having to stop and look over stuff multiple times. The first technical part was a little man-made rock garden. The line for this one was on the right because the left had a big rock slab that looked like a gap jump, but if you messed it up you landed in the middle of sharp rocks. Through the second rock garden, the line was on the left, but if you needed you could go right and it wouldn't have a detrimental impact on your race, unlike the alternative line in the first rock garden. Then, there was a drop that you didn't have to hit, and frankly, you shouldn't unless you needed to. There are some swoops and berms, then there are two gap jumps that we stopped and sessioned a couple of times to make sure we could do them, and see if they were faster. (Spoiler alert: they were.) The next big feature was a drop that we had to stop and session again, but we eventually decided that it was best to take the B-line on that one because the cost of messing up was too great. 

Right after that was a rocky climb that I didn't make the first time, and so we had to stop and session that one, too! It had a steep rocky line, a mellower line next to it, and a line with no rocks at all that went all the way around a group of trees and took way longer. I sessioned it many, many times, and we finally decided that the middle line was the fastest, easiest, and most efficient use of power. 

Once I had cleared it several times, we called it good and moved on. After that was downhill, and then there were four consecutive ledges. We sessioned those, and once I got confident with popping the 1st, 3rd, and 4th, and rolling the 2nd, we moved on. The next feature was right after that, a gap jump, then the rest of the course was just uphills and downhills, with no really noticeable features. 

After we pre-rode the first time, we went back and did it all again to make sure we were good. I'm so glad we did, because on one of the drops, the one after the gap jump, we found out the drop was actually faster. We did the course again, and in the second half, Addison from Pinkbike Academy and Orange Seal joined up with our course and rode behind us for the rest. We went home a different way and almost got lost, but we made it. 

The next day, we woke up early to get to see all the professionals go. We drove over this time, and while walking to see the pros in some spots, we noticed a sign that we followed for my course, but on a section of the course that we didn't know existed. This was really bad because now we didn't know where the course went. Later, we went and walked the new part, and I felt pretty confident. There were no big features that I needed to pre-ride, and even though I was nervous about this new section of the course, I knew I could do it. We went back to the car and talked about it, and then we went and watched Kate Courtney's race! 

Kate Courtney is my role model. I watched her on Fastlife and she's just so amazing, so it's an understatement to say that I was fangirling when I finally saw her. I watched her race, but it started raining, so it got cut from 6 laps to 4 laps. We left and then went to Top Golf with the Texas Devo crew. It was super fun, and then we left Top Golf at 8:00 and I got to sleep around 8:45. When I woke up in the morning, I was super nervous/excited. I ate, got dressed, and then headed up to the venue. We went and talked to the Devo crew, and then just sat in the car. It was super windy and cold outside, and then too soon it was time for warm-ups. Texas Devo loaned me a set of their rollers to warm up with (awesome!). It was my second time on rollers ever and I only fell off 5 times, ha. 

Once we got to the line, I was super nervous, and the staging situation didn't help. They called up the whole age class at once, and call-up points didn't matter - whoever was near the front of the pack got the front spots. I should have been 6th call-up but instead, I was 2nd row... Once the whistle blew, I got boxed out and had a pretty bad start. 

Both Reese and I got stuck behind some girls with poor technical on the first lap, and I managed to get around one of them but got stuck behind another on the series of 4 drops. She slowed down considerably, so I had trouble doing them safely. Same thing with the drop afterward, but I made it out unscathed. I passed her, and then someone fumbled the rock uphill so another girl and I went around on the C-line and passed her. Now, I'm stuck behind a girl who won't let me by but was having trouble in the rocky sections. I passed her in the air on a gap jump that she took the B-line on, and that's the pass I'm most proud of the whole race. 

I kept it together for the rest of the race and was steadily working my way up the ranks, bunny after bunny. I call riders ahead of me bunnies, and that helps motivate me to catch and pass them. The final stretch of the first lap was straight into the teeth of the wind, and it was super hard to work through.  I finished the 1st lap in 7th place. The second lap went better than than the first, I improved my speed through tech sections and didn't have any more racers in my age class to pass. I maintained my place and as I came around the final turn I saw my old coach, Tyrone (Reese Walker's dad), yelling at me to catch 'one more bunny!' referring to an older girl in front of me so I turned it up and passed her before the line. It didn't matter since she was in a different age class, but it was fun. 

This was a great experience, I learned a lot. I learned that call-ups really matter and sometimes they don't happen. I learned that just because someone has a good opening sprint doesn't mean they can ride tech. I learned that I can push myself harder than I thought possible and that it can be enough. Most importantly, I learned that passing in the air is the best kind of passing.