State Championships Race Report: Sofia Hamilton

As this race marked my last ever high school race, and a chance for the Drake team to be three-time state champions, I was determined to put everything I had in me into this race.

We started with a neutral start that wound through the pit zone and then made a U-turn onto the real course, where the race really began. Maren decided to take the lead and start off going hard, with Kate, Shayna and me right on her wheel, and Mackinzie right behind me. Alexis Ryan, a SoCal girl, managed to work her way up to our lead group pretty soon. We ended up staying pretty much all together with Maren in the front for the whole first lap, but on the second lap Shayna, Kate, Alexis, and I passed Maren. Alexis disappeared at some point during this lap, I’m not sure what happened, but she ended up DNFing.

The remaining four of us stayed together for the rest of the second lap and when we got to the first climb for the third time around Shayna got a little bit of a gap on the rest of us. As we hit the downhill, Shayna’s gap increased when we got stuck behind some lapped riders on the parts of the downhill that were nearly impossible to pass on.

When we got to the flat, windy fireroad section in the middle Maren suddenly surged ahead. I tried to get on her wheel and draft off of her but she managed to pull away. As we hit the next climb, I knew this might be my last chance to catch her so I gave it everything I had, pushing myself harder than ever before, but I didn’t seem to gain much time on her.

Shayna, Maren and I were close enough that I could see both of them ahead of me still, and when we got to the bottom of the final descent and hit the incredibly long, incredibly windy straight, bumpy section to the finish I dug even deeper to try to bridge the gap, screaming at myself in my mind to go even harder, because it was my last high school race of my life.

I saw Maren catching up to Shayna and put my head down and pedaled through the pain to try to catch them, but unfortunately didn’t make it all the way up to them. Despite that, I wanted to finish with nothing left, so I sprinted as hard as I could across the finish line, taking third.

Amazing job to everyone else out there! It was super exciting to finish off senior year with a three-peat! Thank you to all the riders, coaches, and parents for an amazing four years, I can honestly say that being part of this team was one of the most awesome experiences of my life and I am going to miss it so much. I know you guys will keep kicking butt without me, and hopefully I’ll be able to make it to a race to cheer you on next year!

~ Sofia

---

State Championships Race Report: Miles Lim

Hey Drake,

Sorry my race report is a little late, I was really busy with school work all week.

Driving to Los Olivos I had plenty of time to think about my race. I knew there would be a lot of fast kids to compete against and I would really have to go one hundred percent to do well. My goal is always to get a top five but this race seemed almost impossible because of the stacked category.

Out of the start I held my position on the right side up against the tape.  One SoCal rider passes me and I was in fourth up the first climb. it was  long and steep and made me tired. I passed the SoCal rider and was ahead of him for a while. Then Skyler passed me and later a different SoCal rider passed me. We stayed together until the middle of the second lap. I wasn’t extremely tired but I felt like I just couldn’t keep up.

The SoCal rider and I stayed back while the top three took off. When he started to bridge the gap and try to catch up, I couldn’t stay with him and rode on my own. I knew I was in fifth and I was fine with that. I kept feeling like I would go around a turn and the SoCal kid would be there because he ran out of gas but it never happened. From then on I wanted to defend my position from riders behind me that I couldn’t see.

I ended up a minute behind fourth and three minutes ahead of sixth.

Adios,
Miles

---

State Championships Race Report: Mackinzie Stanley

Howdy All,

Coming into this race, I didn’t have quite the same nervousanticipation that I felt should have been there going into a state championships race. I pre-rode the course and recognized that there were afew off-camber corners, two main hills and a nice, *looong, bumpy*, flat single track coming into the finish. The course was also fairly dusty and the breathing didn’t feel great as i was following a line of other pre-riders along the singletrack. Luckily,a light shower the night before helped to tamp down the trail a bit although the off on on sun/almost rain type of weather was a little weird.

Knowing that there was a pretty good hill close to the start and that I’ve had troubles with the hills in the past, I tried to get in a good warm up with lots of sprints and it seemed to pay off. On the start line, I was supposed to get called up, but couldn’t hear anything that the guy was saying thru his megaphone and so ended up starting in the 3rd row back, behind a bunch of SoCal girls who I was pretty certain wouldn’t pose much trouble. As soon as the pacers pulled off the trail, the top riders raced for the front spots. I maneuvered myself past a few girls , but got cut off
before the single track, hovering in about 9th place or so. I was then able to pass a few more girls, finding myself right behind 6th place with the five leaders in a pack, steadily increasing their gap. Knowing that I needed to stay close to the front group to have a chance of taking a podium spot, I passed the girl in 6th place and struck out on my own to close the gap.

I pushed myself up the first single track climb and almost caught the tail end of the front pack by the top. I noticed that one girl seemed to have more trouble than the rest hanging onto the group and that pushed me to go faster, thinking that I might have a chance of passing her. For the rest of the lap, I pushed myself to dig in and by the time we got to the open fireroad I had attached myself to the rear end of the front group.

Meanwhile, I had looked back over my shoulder and realized that there was no other rider in sight, which was peculiar in itself, since I almost always have at least one or two other riders following not far behind for at least the first lap. Pushing that thought from my mind, I focused on keeping up as much as I could on the singletrack climb. About halfway up, I realized that I had caught up to Maren, who had dropped off the end and after a moment of being dumbfounded as to why she was not farther up, I proceeded to pass her and cruise the down hill.

Partway through the flat singletrack, Maren cruised by me and I wondered ‘*where did that come from when she was dragging on the climb*?’ This just made more determined that I was going to catch back up to the lead group, and I put down a tremendous effort and was able to catch back up to the lead group by the time we crossed the finish line, where I felt pretty accomplished for staying close to the lead group for a whole lap when usually I drop off somewhere around halfway through or earlier in the first lap.

Unfortunately, that was as long as that lasted. As we ascended the singletrack climb on the second lap, I couldn’t quite hang on and the front group pulled away. I pushed it faster than ever on the rolling, downhill terrain after the hill, but couldn’t quite close the gap that had formed between me and the front five.

Knowing that I would probably be on my own for the rest of the race I mentally braced myself to keep pushing even when the riders in front of me were just out of sight. I pushed thoughts of 6th place out of my mind and focused on being as smooth and fast as possible.

On the down hill after the fireroad climb, I saw Alexis Ryan pulling off to the side of the singletrack in front of me. I wasn’t sure what had made her stop and I wasn’t going to take any chances or pass up on this chance. Filled with a sudden surge of energy, I pushed it even harder as I cruised through the finish line and then proceeded to kill myself on the singletrack climb that I was determined to win against. Unfortunately, as I entered my last lap, I suddenly encountered an onslaught of freshmen/sophmore/JV riders and on the steep single track in the middle of the climb I got caught behind a few freshmen who couldn’t make it and who decided to cross the trail in front of me in their attempt to skooch off to the side-forcing me to get off my bike and run past them before getting back on.

Ticked at the number of riders I was now encountering and out of my zone, I finished cresting the hill with a strong performance, but breathing raggedly and tried to center myself back onto my own race. From there I just kept up a strong pace for the rest of the lap, continuing to pass riders every few minutes or sooner — usually in groups. They did create a certain determination in me on the second climb however- I became determined to pass all of a huge group of them before the top so that I wouldn’t get stuck behind them on the downhill. I did pass them all, but then caught up to more of them towards the end anyway.

Coming into the finish, I put in a strong effort to finish the race in style and sprinted across the finish line, even letting a small smile escape – I had just finished top five in State.

Overall, I am happy at how my season went and my results. I learned a lot in Varsity this year and am ready to reach even higher next season. I also really enjoyed just being able to have a full season of racing and to have my last race feel so good-possible the best I’ve felt all season.

Besides individual success, I am so proud to have contributed to the third successive state win for Drake. Great Job to all of you who raced and practiced and contributed to the team – it was a team effort and team spirit that contributed to getting this win. Thanks to everyone cheering out there – it helps so much to know that people are rooting for you!!!

-Mackinzie

---

State Championships Race Report: Sam McLaughlin

After a disappointing race at Boggs Mountain, I was determined to go for
broke at States. Pre-riding the course, I didn’t think any of the climbs
would be too bad, but I knew that the constant stutter bumps on the rough
singletrack would take their toll. I remembered how beat up I’d been from
the similarly bumpy Nationals course last year, and I hoped I would be able
to maintain enough strength to deal with the chatter.

On race day, I made sure my warm-up was more thorough than
usual, knowing that there would be a steep climb right out of the gate. I
did get a call-up, but I was in the fourth row. After the neutral start, I
charged up the singletrack, trying to get into a better position for the
switchbacks, passing many riders but already getting shaken up by the trail.

I made it into the switchbacks in 11th or 12th position. I felt
really strong on the climb, and I passed another rider or two. For the rest
of the first lap, I followed a group of three Casa Grande riders. The pace
was fast, but I never felt the first-lap burn that I usually get (maybe the
warm-up helped?). Near the end of that lap, Conor Briese came up behind me.
I urged him not to pass just yet, and to wait for a wider section of trail
so that we could make an attack together.

When we crossed the creek and headed out for the 2nd lap, we both passed the
Casa Grande riders and shifted our focus to trying to catch up to Daniel,
who was just ahead. We passed him on one of the downhills, and rode in a
stretched-out group for most of the rest of the lap. The Casa Grande
trifecta stayed in hot pursuit the whole time.

By the time I started my third lap, Conor had increased his lead over me.
Daniel and one of the Casa Grande riders, Justin, passed me right after I
went through the finish area. While heading through the feed zone, I talked
(with some difficulty) to Daniel. “There are more Casa guys really close
behind us,” he told me, and I replied, “Nobody else passes us from now on!”
We both picked up our pace a bit, trying to reel in Justin and keep away the
chasing riders.

I was really feeling the effects of the rough course on that third lap. The
incessant small bumps were impossible to avoid. Staying seated was out of
the question, but standing was a challenge because my rear wheel would
bounce around so much. This was a course that deserved a full-suspension
bike, and my hardtail was punishing to ride.

On the last big climb, I got right up to Daniel’s wheel, but spotted a lone
Casa rider less than a minute back. I told this to Daniel, and as we crested
the climb, he slowly pulled away from me. He never got very far, but I
couldn’t quite close the gap. I knew we were close to the finish, and I kept
glancing back over my shoulder at the Casa rider, trying to hold him off for
just a few more minutes. I gained some time on him during the final descent,
but he was closing slowly on the long flat section before the finish. I
crossed the creek, turned into the finish section, and only at the last
corner was I certain that he wasn’t going to catch me, and I relaxed,
sprinting comfortably over the line.

I had a great race, and I ended up in 9th place. I still didn’t make the
podium, but I had my best finish of the season and I beat a few of the
riders who had been beating me in the previous races. I felt great, I
thought I raced well, and I enjoyed this race more than any of the others.
Daniel and Conor were both very helpful during the race, and all of the
teammates, parents and coaches who cheered me on were awesome as well. On
top of that, Drake took home a third State Championship in a row!  I’m glad
that I could end the season on a high note, and I’m really looking forward
to next season.