Norcal HS #1 Granite bay WIN - Max Houtzager

Norcal HS Race #1

Folsom, Granite Bay, CA

Varsity Boys (~35)

Teammates: Bobby Zidek, Eliel Antilla, Sven Beer and Taylor Smith

Result: 1st

Testing out new Carbon Rovals on Saturday got me stoked for this race. They feel way lighter, AND are noticeably stiffer, so shralping Tenderfoot (even with wet roots and 1.9 Renegade race tires), I confidently high posted tech sections, drops, and corners like never before, taking some high lines I only occasionally attempt on my Enduro, and equally fast. If only the race could of been on a mountain with technical downhill...

I knew the competition would be much more fierce with the entire league present, but luckily had 1st call up, so the start ended up the complete opposite of the last race.



Everyone seemed to learn from last time that it's hard to go all out for four whole laps, and no one wanted to pull, so the pace was gruelingly slow. Thus, I followed Taylor for lap one, riding a comfortable pace with the whole field behind us. We were just shredding corners on our Epics like last time! Except this time all the rocks were on the uphills since it was the same course run backwards. I really didn't want to work hard unless attacking for the finish, and also didn't want to waste energy trying to catch back up to the leader if other people made mistakes in front of me, so I made sure to stay in 2nd the entire race until the end. So I did just that as Bryan Duke led the remainder of the race for the majority of the time, throwing little baby attacks every now on then, mostly on the same downhills. I knew he wasn't working hard and is capable of a truly impressive performance coming off a CCCX win in the pro field a few weeks ago. The race was pretty weird as it wasn't super hard physically until the end, but the mental aspect killed the whole time, knowing that at any moment anyone could take the win. I also partially rode downhills like a total nancy, keeping it clean but wasting energy playing catch up, which wasn't very reassuring for what would soon take place on the critical final lap. Plus I felt pretty tired/low energy on lap 3, since we weren't going hard, similar to when your body warms down on a ride when stopped or finishing, but knew I'd have to open it up soon so really had to focus my energy.

Things did heat up slightly on the final lap with some solid attacks by Bryan. I planned to attack on a certain climb with a 1/4 lap left, but ~ 5 minutes before on one of the 3 lightly technical climbs Bryan's bike mis-shifted during an attack, so I took the opportunity and made my move early. I did my best to turn myself inside out to the finish, worried that I went too early and would just be reeled back in by the lead group with the semi windy straight road sections, or simply by Bryan Duke. It ended up successful as I held a solid 20 second gap to the finish!

Stoked on my first real varsity race and first varsity race win. Also, on lap 3 our lead group of 6 had to ride an entire road section slower than 2 MPH due to the evacuation of two other Varsity Riders' crash. Best wishes to Eliel and Jeff (Shen?), get well soon. And of course AMAZING job to everyone on our team racing today! We really took the top spots all over the place!