Yadkin Valley Stomp GNCC

September 30, 2007 - Yadkinville, North Carolina

The series made it's way back to North Carolina this past weekend for another great round of racing.  The weather was nearly perfect all weekend and after watching a little bit of the morning race on Sunday the course looked like it was going to be in awesome shape.  One thing I was sure to check out Sunday morning was a creek jump everyone was talking about.  I really thought it would be no big deal, kind of like the one in South Carolina, however it was a lot different than I expected!  It was actually more of a drop off with a pretty hard landing.  The alternate line around it was actually looking pretty good to me!  It would be a few seconds slower but by taking it there would be virtually no risk of having a problem.  I decided I'd wait until the first lap to see which line I'd choose.  If I saw a group of XC1 riders swimming in the creek to the left, I'd be going around them to the right!

I wasn't able to repeat my good start from Unadilla but still managed to be in the front half of the pack.  On the first lap everyone in front of me skipped the alternate line and jumped the creek so I followed them over the edge.  It was a hard hit but we all seemed to make it fine.  I was content to just hang around near the top 5 on the first lap and let everyone else set the pace.  In fact, I was around 7th place for most of the first lap until moving into 4th near the scoring check.  The course was a little dustier than it had looked like for the morning race so I didn't want to spend too much time in traffic.

I was able to make my way a little farther to the front on the second lap and eventually catch up to Justin Williamson.  He was riding a nice pace up front but quickly let me by and gave me the lead.  It's a long race and I think he was wanting to just continue his pace at the beginning instead of getting into a battle early on and using up a lot of energy.  I agreed with the energy conservation plan and tried not to go crazy out front or do anything stupid.  The course was pretty fun and the fans seemed to be really enjoying it.  The creek jump had tons of fans around watching the action.  I hear it was the place to be!

As the race wore on, Justin and Thad Duvall lingered close behind me in the 2nd and 3rd positions.  Those two guys are fast and strong so I knew this race would probably come down to the wire.  Unfortunately I added a little more to the storyline just before the halfway point of the race when I caught a tree with my right foot.  I instantly thought I broke a few toes because the pain was so sharp.  I didn't go down, though, and sure wasn't going to give up without at least trying to continue to ride.  Adrenaline soon seemed to take over and I was able to keep concentrating on the race and not how much my foot was hurting.  I began to think that I'd be able to make it all the way to the finish without slowing down....and then the pain started coming back.  Two laps seems like forever in situations like these and that's exactly how many more laps I had before the race would be over.  Justin made his way by me and I just wasn't able to push hard enough to stay with him.  I was trying to keep from putting my right foot down which made it especially hard to navigate certain sections of the track but I did my best and tried to keep going.  Thad pulled right up on my fender with one lap to go so I went wide and let him by.  He looked like he was really moving but we were about 30 seconds down from Williamson so I didn't think he'd be able to catch him.

The last lap seemed like it took forever but I finally came to the checkered flag in 3rd place.  Thad did end up getting by Justin on the last lap to take the win.  Both of those guys rode a great race and I congratulate each of them.  Ohio is coming up in two weeks and hopefully I'll be healed up enough to put in a decent showing.  Until then I've got some swollen toes to take care of and a tweaked ankle to hobble around on.  It was still a fun weekend for me, though, and like I told everyone at the race - it's really hard to ever complain about a podium finish.

Photos by Jason Hooper at gnccracing.com

Photo by Kylah Vanhorn