Saturday, Kings Wood Cx,
I started 4th row, as I didn't have any UCI points but I wasn't too worried because 45 minutes is quite a bit of time to move up. Especially on a course as hard as this one. The hardest part for me was a section near the end of the course where you went up a steep hill 3 times in a row with only seconds rest, when coasting down one side before going up the next. 
I stayed patient and made my way to the front but by the time I was there, Gage Hecht was already 7 seconds up on me. While that gap was small I couldn't close it down. Gage rode an amazing race and was simply too strong for me that day. 
I attacked out of the chase group in a sand pit section and was able to finish second behind a very strong Mr. Hecht. Great race man!
Sunday, Pan American Championships,
One of the more technical courses I've ever done, this race was awesome! I had a better start position and good legs, so I was pretty excited to see how things went. I had a good start, 4th in the holeshot and felt fine. I stayed there for a lap and then tried making an aggressive move on a sick decent which ended in a hard crash. 
I took a bit of time to recover, maybe a little too long, but I was worried about my ribs as I landed on my chest in the fall. I went back to just outside the top 10 and took a lap to get my head together, then it was back on the gas. My plan was to catch a guy, rest for a couple minutes then attack and move up to the next group/guy. I knew I could get back to the podium after a couple laps of this. 
I moved into top 4 with 3 to go, and rode with Lance Haidet for half a lap then continued my surge. Then soon I was with my buddy Spencer Petrov with 2 laps remaining and didn't rest that time. Spencer is a strong racer and I just wanted to keep maintaining a fast but smooth pace.
Finally I caught second place on the last lap (Christopher Blevins) and attacked him immiedetly. I had a small gap going into a hard little climb with lose dirt. I messed up and he caught back on. At that point we had half a lap remaining and I decided to take my chances in the sprint. Chris picked the pace up going into the remaining minutes of the race, trying to get rid of me. I was questioning his tactics but later found out he had a problem with his pedal and couldn't pull up hard without coming out. So he was doing everything he could to avoid a sprint. I accelerated around him into the last corner and sprinted out of the corner for second place. Great ride to Chris, finishing with only one working pedal. Way to finish with a mechanical! Once again Gage was the best of the group and deserved his win. Excited to race with him and others in Europe soon!
Thanks for reading!
-Gavin T
Thanks to Kent Baumgardt and Christopher Schmidt for the pictures!
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