31 March 2009  |  Race Reports

Chile, pre-race

We arrived in Chile yesterday morning, which gave us plenty of time to unpack bikes, eat lunch and check out the course.  I was riding like a ninny- lots of travel and lack of sleep don’t really do much for my technical skills…

Our hotel is way up in the moutains and the road up has more twists, turns and switchbacks than any road I’ve ever been on.  It takes about 40 minutes of coasting downhill to get to the course- and it’s a beautiful ride (which would probably explain the hundreds of cyclist we passed riding up and down the road on our way to and from the course).  The mountains are huge and there aren’t really any big trees to obscure the view.  It’s nice and cool at the hotel, but a little hotter down my the course- luckily Willow and I  scoped out the creek that runs through the course for post-race cooling off…

The course is challenging- there is a ton of pretty steep climbing and a few sketchy descents.  It’s very dry and the climbs and downhills are pretty loose and dusty.  There’s a ton of singletrack (almost the whole course now that I think about it…) so the start will definitely be important.  In any case, I am expecting a good, tough race, and hoping to avoid running into one of the many different kinds of cacti and thorn bushes that line the trail.

My legs are felling pretty good, and my loose-sketchy-rut-riding skills are coming along…