Catharine Pendrel

Wow I am so ready to be out of a car!! We decided to drive back home through Montana to spice things up. The change is nice, but I’d rather be home already. It was a really good trip though. I finished up a very consistent string of races with a 9th in the xc and another 8th in the Short track at Norba Finals. The string of good racing at altitude has me pumped to race the World Championships at Sea level. I learned a lot about my racing these past weekends and am hoping to put it altogether in NZ. Snowmass was very similar in course layout to Brian Head. Huge climb off the start & big ring descents with lots of flatting opportunities, but this weekend they through in a long single track climb which led straight into the start climb as we did 1.5 laps. Perhaps Norbas aren’t the best prep for World Cups in terms of course design as climbing courses are selective and don’t emphasize the necessity of working through traffic, but the competition is great. The short track

Have now done three fun mtb rides in Fruita in the Kokopelli and North Fruita Dessert trail areas. Today's ride was probably my favorite. Keith and I did a trail named Steve's Loop and then rode over to Troy built. We followed the canyon perimeter and even saw a few lizzards.

Had a huge Burrito on the way. Yummy. Then got stuck in traffic. A big forest fire had crossed the interstate. Luckily there aren’t a whole lot of trees around here. Then we went through some of the most crazy scenery I’ve been through. Red rock spires, Canyons and they just stretched on forever, no services for 110 miles. After we took Ricky’s bag off the roof we could go a lot faster and strolled into Fruita at 11:00. We now have a spacious hotel room with fridge and microwave as well as bike storage. We have been experimenting with microwaveable meals. Yeah wraps! Ricky has gone off to the race track. They claim their Go Karts can hit 100 miles per hour! Yeeha!

As we started the ascent to Brian Head you could feel a weight begin to press in on your chest. I don’t think I have ever felt that horrible in a warm up before. My legs felt like they were being pulled in all directions. People have been raving about the single loop course and from looking around we knew it would be good. The sun decided to shine on us today and the race got off to a good start. First we climbed up a long paved climb. My heart rates were really high in warm up and I knew other girls were much more used to altitude so I just sat in and let them work. Willow Lead most of the climb which eventually turned to dirt and continued up. She paid for her effort though and got popped before the crest. It was now just 6 of us: Heather, Dara, Shonny, Georgia, Jimena and myself. I was feeling the effort pretty good and not knowing how much climbing was left I had to ease up. I crested the next climb to see the girls funneling into a single track climb ahead of me. Damn, I was al

Vancouver: After Mt Washington we headed back to Sandra Walter’s place for a couple nights. Her family was awesome and we got well rested and fed for the journey ahead of us. We even got to ride some of their backyard trails. Sandra Schooled us …or at least me on Triple Crown and showing us why those trails belonged in her backyard. Vancouver to Utah : Keith, matt and I left Sandra’s Tuesday morning and headed south. Popular Sandra had to stay behind for a couple weddings. After a stop for French toast in White rock with my coach Dan we crossed the border with our well loaded Subaru. After Several hours of driving through plains we spotted a tower on a distant hillside and decided to make it our ride destination. Horse Heaven Hills as we later learned provided us with a nice fire road climb before sending us down a steep hill face through tumble weed and sage. Not the most exciting ride…except for the worries we might start a fire we had to be on the disc brakes so much, but it was go