The Northwest was blessed with sunny skies and warm weather for the 3rd round of the NWCup. With cooler temperatures present at previous rounds this was a welcome change. The courses were dialled and the dirt nearly perfect.
Jill and Lars both put in a solid amount of runs during practice, as the race course was too much fun to turn down more shuttles to the start. Both riders were using this event for race prep and training for the season's upcoming events. During qualifying on Sunday both riders claimed the fastest times with Jill running a 3min 18sec and Lars a 3min 00sec, assuring them the final start positions come finals. This was not without serious effort however as both the men's and women's fields had strong competitors.
In the finals both Transition Racing athletes were able to back up their qualifying runs with winning times. In the Women's field, Jill finished with a 3min18.61sec and was able to have a cleaner run than in qualifying and succeeded in her training goal for the weekend of smashing out a solid complete run without any major mistakes. In the Men's division Lars was able to shave 2 seconds off his seeding run time with a 2min58.38sec and also completed his goal for the weekend of a top three.
Jill had this to say "The trails were as perfect as I have ever seen em. In Qualify I was pretty confident that I had a top 3 sewn up, based on participant numbers:) In my race run the plan was to be smoother, ie faster, but I scored the exact same time as my qualifier, rode a ton better though. baffling. Best thing I took away was knowing my fitness is improving. Adapting from 30sec-1min efforts to 3-5min flat out effort has proven to be a challenge. Just happy to have kicked the excessive coughing stage after each race, who hoo!"
And Lars said "What a great weekend! Killer weather, killer atmosphere, killer competition, and another flawless NWCup. I'm stoked to be able to uphold the top spot of the NWCup for Transition Racing. My race run was really good and it was a major effort. I've really been working on my mental game after being out for so long, so it's really satisfying to see all the hard work pay off. The bike and equipment was working perfectly, and I felt great. Looking forward to continuing this momentum into the next races."
Keep up to date with the Transition Factory Race team via twitter:
www.twitter.com/TransitionRace
Transition Racing is supported by FOX Racing Shox, Crankbrothers, Dakine, KORE, Maxxis, Shimano, THE, ODI, 5.10, e.13, Jetlites, Cadenceworks, Jagwire, Cane Creek, Kinetic, Feedback Sports, Contour HD, and Lezyne.
