Flagstaff race recap

[OVMTB]

Wow.  Without question, OVMTB had the stuff this weekend. I think we even had a little extra.  In a good way.  Not like extra toes or boogers.

Our campsite was filled with riders stoked to race, their siblings who got to participate in the camp shenanigans, and their families who got to meet and hang out with the best dang interscholastic MTB team of Tucson.  Thank you to our new families for jumping in with both feet, and thanks to our returning families for helping to maintain and spread our OVMTB culture.  The team dinner had so much great food, made by lots of great people and lots of good company. 

Our pre-ride Saturday afternoon went well.  It even rained on us a little, but not quite enough to eliminate the dust...

Sunday morning temps were perfect.  The middle school boys started their races at 8am. The butterflies or knots in their stomachs quickly turned into pedal punishing fury and dust flew.  The middle school girls started at 8:30am with the same energy and maybe even a little more excitement than the boys. The 5.8 miles went quickly.  When it was all said and done, we had a total of 6 middle school riders up on the podium, 3 of which had never raced before!  

The high school races (and dust) continued throughout the day and OVMTB as a whole really rode their hearts out.  As normal with racing, there were some brilliant moments and some struggles, probably both of each several times every lap.  Every single rider dug deep, performed to the best of their ability, and represented our team like professionals regardless of any setbacks (or dust) they might have encountered.  As the burning lungs and wobbly legs slowly recovered, smiles and stories came out in waves.  It's a very unique atmosphere when riders are barely able to stand from exhaustion, but sharing tales of the race with dust covered faces and downing chocolate milk like it's going to give them wings. 

Then the pit zone and venue teardown came (no dust!) and OVMTB coaches, parents and riders all showed up to help get the work done so we could move on to the high school awards. Thank you for all pitching in again, I know it's not easy after a long day.

We had 8 high school podiums which is incredible, 1 of which had never raced before!  To top it off, CDO placed 2nd as a team in Division 1, and OV Composite placed 3rd as a team in Division 2- making it the first time OV Composite has been on the podium as a team in a long time (if ever, i haven't been able to verify yet....) Told you we had a little extra stuff!

We have a great group of new riders, and a very solid group of returning riders that combined really makes this a really strong team overall.  I'm really proud of all of them and would guess you are too.  If your riders aren't reading this, let'em know. We'll definitely talk about it at practice as well.

Going forward- we have a pretty normal practice schedule, then the Prescott race coming up in 11 days.  The only thing you need to keep an eye out for is the signup genius.  It'll look a little different as the team is providing the main course since our team dinner is on Friday evening.  Please plan to be there by 4pm Friday afternoon, we'll pre ride at 4:30pm and dinner around 6pm.  The race day schedule is the same as Flagstaff, just on Saturday not Sunday.

Ryan 

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Ryan McCoskey

OVMTB Head Coach

www.ovmtb.org

[Michele Wilcox]

Love it! Thank you Coach Ryan!!! 

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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Go Otters!!!
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