CTS Sand Creek Sports UCI Race Report

As a CTS coach and Pro mtn biker of several years, I knew my preparation wasn’t spot on as I approached the Sand Creek International ProXCT race in my backyard this last weekend. Since the event was not a priority race on my calendar this year, I didn’t really have high expectations. But I couldn’t pass up the chance to blow out the pipes at a race so close to home on a challenging mountain biker’s course.  Not having pressure for results in this race was nice since as a member of Mafia Racing’s Pro MTB Team, I am able to focus on the marathon and ultra distance mountain bike races this year. In a conversation with some of my fellow competitors, it was mentioned that this was one of the most challenging mtb courses that has popped up on the national circuit in the last 4-5 years.  The course had a substantial amount of tight, twisty single –track laced with challenging rock gardens; one of which that had a VW beetle size rock that required a nearly 2 foot step-up to successfully ride the section.  Most chose to dismount, but being local and having fans in those sections, I aimed to please staying on my bike and riding through.  

I decided to take a different approach to the race by starting a bit easier than the pace set by the top Pros that are accustomed to the World Cup start.  In theory, this tactic would allow me to play to my ability to hold a sustained pace later and pick riders off that started too hard and blew up.  Luckily I had a good start going into the trail in the top 40 of approximately 85 riders in the field.  On laps 3 and 4, I picked off about 10 riders that went out too hard.  Unfortunately I chose a bad line in the last few miles of the race causing a front puncture that I had to repair.  I lost several spots in the closing minutes, but all-in-all, I ended up finishing in the mid-50s.

With the course being heavily laden with fun technical sections and a large amount of single-track, it was a truly fun course to rip around for a couple hours.  The fans on the course made it that much better of an experience as the CTS and Mafia tents around the start/finish expo were cheering me on as I started each successive lap. Fellow local cyclists were in the feed zone encouraging me to get the next group up the trail, a couple course marshals were buddies of mine, and some of my training partners were heckling me in the rock gardens. All in all, it was a fun experience- and it didn’t require hours of travel to race my bike.

-Daniel Matheny

CTS Expert Coach

Mafia Racing