My next target race is Nationals in West Virginia. With some humbling experiences at the Sea Otter classic fueling my passion to work harder and smarter, I set my focus on quality training and local races, mostly cross country but I take whatever I can find.

I even jumped into an Eddy Time Trial!

Time Trial - kristine contento-angell 2018 3rd

On the local scene, my race skills and race legs were starting to come together.

I was beyond stoked with the size of the Women’s field at the Stewart Poison Ivy Mouse Trap. I was even more stoked with how awesome my fitness felt. I made a small mistake early on into the race – crashing and stabbing my handlebar into my quad. I was able to get back on the leaders wheel, and stay there, until that quad started cramping on the last lap.

The most monumental of the xc races for me was the Lewis Morris Challenge. Typically, I have had poor results at this race venue – there is very minimal technical riding and a whole lot of climbing, plus quite a few road-racing riders give this race a shot and their road strength typically pays off big on this course. I headed in with a clear plan – I counted out 5 hills per lap, 3 lap total, and planned to attack each climb individually, focusing only on the current climb, planning to return to a lighter tempo pace in between the climbs, during which I could recover. It didn’t matter who else was on the start line, it didn’t matter what anyone else’s strengths were. Nothing else mattered. I was solely focused on my own performance on each individual hill.

I executed my plan. It worked perfectly. I not only won the race, but I proved to myself that I can overcome my greatest weaknesses, opening the possibility that anything is possible.

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