After spending Thursday night in Mountain View to cut the 6 hour trip to Eureka Springs in half, I slept in ’til nearly 7 Friday then hit up the Rainbow cafe on my way out of town. When I arrived in Eureka, I figured I’d settle in, eat lunch, then head up to Lake Leatherwood for a preride of the XC course before the shuttle started running for the downhill practice at 2pm.

I rode from where I am staying, which is about halfway between the Lake and downtown Eureka Springs. I found the beginning of the XC loop and made my way up the first little climb and along a ridge before descending back down to lake level. At that point, I’d only ridden a few miles, and the course had been well-marked. However, I reached an intersection where the course arrows pointed down both trails. Uh…

I chose “left,” which I guess was the course for the beginners, because I was back at the parking lot within a mile or two. At that time, it was 1:20. I met some other riders in the parking lot that were getting ready to ride the course. I briefly thought about going with them, but with the short track registration and TT starting at 4:00, I didn’t want to miss the first shuttle for DH practice. So, I chose to stay in the parking area and hang out with some of the people who had come to town just for the DH race.

2:00 came and went with no shuttle. Around 2:50, someone showed up with a dying truck and flatbed. I made a couple of runs and had to call it quits so I could get ready for short track.

The short track course was pretty boss. It had some sweepy, full speed turns, a couple of gravelly, greasy turns, and a hump to 180 to steep pitch just before the finish line straightaway. I nearly missed the qualifying TT because registration was painfully slow, but made it just in time to take a hot lap with no warmup or pre-ride. Somehow, my lap landed me a spot in the lineup 1 row ahead of the other women (women were run as an “open” category with the cat II men). I like MTB racing from the front, so this was good for me.

With 18 minutes on the countdown clock, we were given the signal to go. I hammered and from the start and fought for position through the first few turns in hopes that the other women would get caught up in traffic. After the first few laps, I could no longer hear spectators cheering for my competitors as I passed, so I knew they’d dropped off of my wheel. Not thinking, I settled my pace down a notch. After a couple of laps, I noticed that one of the other women was gaining some ground back. Then, I remembered that in an 18 minute race, there is no settling down… duh. I put the hammer down and tried to look at the start/finish timer, but it was malfunctioning. According to conversation overheard following the race, that clock has malfunctioned for the past two years before this race as well.

Nevertheless, I won the race. Later that night, I picked up my women’s award of a pint glass, water bottle, and a pair of gloves (cat 1 men received cash and those things, but since the women were combined with cat II men, for our race, we were awarded the same as the cat II men) . More importantly, I picked up some good points for the omnium competition.

Off to a good start. Saturday, however…