RACHEL PAGEAU
Mountain Bike Athlete & Kinesiology BSC Student
Windrock Tennessee National 2019
Last weekend was the first race of the season for many of us. Windrock Bikepark held the 2019 Tennessee National, including the first round of the Pro GRT and the first American EWS qualifier enduro of the season. Everyone was amped to race and see if the winter workouts had paid off. Track walk and first day of practice were sunny and [sorta] warm, tracks were running quite fast with the occasional puddles. On Friday, day of qualies, weather treated us with a lot of rain and low temps. Still, spirits were high. On my part, I went for a smooth and steady run in qualies which put me in 4th. Nothing I felt like celebrating but also my bike and I were unscathed and ready for another day of practice and racing! When Saturday morning came, it was cold and rainy again. I won't lie I was tired and had a slight melt down going into practice. Thanks to good friends who raised my spirit, I went back up to put good practice runs in, boosted the gaps and jumps and kept my feet on the pedals the whole way down the mud slides. Got me quite pumped!
I was pumped, relaxed and felt confident going up to my race run. My Phoenix was feeling plush, I had put enough laps in to get all the new parts dialed in and I knew all my lines. I was ready to party and I put in a lap expressing that. Clean run, only one hand to the ground (which in these conditions was pretty damn good!). Held it together in the technical sections and pushed a little harder on the open sections. Managed to take the big W with a 20 second advantage and couldn't have been more stoked on it!
Weekend wasn't nearly over for me though! No beers were had on Saturday night because came Sunday morning she had to conquer the Tennessee National Enduro. A gnarly and strenuous enduro of 5 stages plus 5 transfers. Thankfully it was sunny all day, trails were not as wet as expected but body was even more tired than expected. I pushed through it, one stage at a time, fueled of Starbusts and Reeses cups until I made it back to the pits. Happy second place behind Miranda Miller. One could say it was a successful weekend! :)
