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| Staging area for the start! |
Well, about 40 minutes ago, the CAT 2 National Championship race concluded with riders blazing across the finish line here in Ketchum, ID. The second person to cross that line was our own Bob Gilbert, only 8 seconds back from the winner!
Shane was out cheering him on and here are his thoughts: "Bob had a slow start which made me nervous cause with this course you gotta be on it right when the gun goes off, otherwise you'll get bottlenecked bad! Luckily he was able to hammer hard during the first lap of the prologue and moved into about 5th position.
One more time up the prologue and he went into the brutal singletrack climb in the 2nd spot, which is perfect cause that climb is NASTY steep with some hefty roots to climb up. After that it's a waiting game for us spectators as the course climbs Bald Mountain before coming back around to the frontside switchback descents. First sights of Bob brought shots of adrenaline to me as he was in a super solid 2nd position! It was sick watching him go back and forth and back and forth along the switchbacks. I screamed and yelled until he was out of sight and then booked it back to the finish line where he had just crossed the line only 8 seconds back from the winner! SOOOO SICK!!!"
Bob had a few words, nice and simple as he's still on his endorphin high: "I knew I had to get out hard on all the climbs so I could be out front before the singletrack. It's a painful course so I told myself to dig deep. The descent is pretty technical and I was definitely testing my DH skills and pushing myself right to the edge."
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| Bob at the finish line after taking 2nd! |
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| Bob with the hardware! |
Pretty wicked awesome day for the Trinity Bikes team out here in Idaho! Next races will be for Shane on Saturday and Sunday!
