Ca State Championships HS XC - Max Houtzager

CA State Champs HS XC
Los Olivos, CA
Varsity Boys (40)
Teammates: Bobby Zidek, Eliel Antilla, Sven Beer and Taylor Smith
Result: 4th
Food HERE

A happy bike racer is a fast bike racer.

I was stoked that the 'State Champ' title was on the line, however a quick preride changed things. As this super competitive race determines the High School Series State Champion while the less-attended Napa Skyline XC determines the USA Cycling State Champion, the extremely non-technical windy course we faced made me inclined to say the Napa title is more worthy. I was glad I did the Rockhopper last weekend, because the course was similar physically, yet had every fun and challenging technical aspect this course didn't. A long loop of singletrack and fireroad through rolling dry wine country hills, just chunkier, more blind corners, and no trees or rocks.

The least charged, yet also least stressed i've ever been going into a race, I followed Tobin off the line and tried to hold onto his powerful wheel. I dropped back a bit at first confident I wouldn't lose the front group but soon struggling as the group split. I was in 8th place or so and feeling pretty negative, and saw bad visions of even dropping out since there wasn't much motivation to ride the course beyond duking it out for a top spot. I knew from past experience I'd be proud to come back strong and make up some positions so I stayed with it. I just had to ride my own race and keep it together, proceeding to do so with Spence Peterson, and Jacob Albrecht. We'd have to work together roady style through the windy flats to bridge up to the front group, so tried to share the work a bit, but it was no use. This probably distracted from simply hanging it all out there. We caught Jimmy Winne and then Cody Phillips on lap 3. On lap 4 I finally fully opened myself up, attacking harder than ever before on the steep climb.

I really dug deep and put the hammer down, gapping Jacob (we had dropped the rest) and keeping the gas on all the way to the finish. (as shown by my last lap time, despite the most traffic of any lap)



I'm stoked for Tobin on his Varsity Win (and title) as well as Noral taking it and Taylor / Casey Williams going 2-3. Tobin and Taylor were super strong out there today which is awesome and I can't wait to race with Casey in Europe (next Tuesday)! Also really glad I was able to pull out a solid varsity result, keeping my season consistent with all podium finishes! It's also good to know i've got plenty of room for improvement and look forward to really making some more big gains! Next time here I’ll be writing from Germany!