I've been looking forward to the Napa Valley Dirt Classic since last April.
If you remember I didn't finish the race last year due to a mechanical
failure a few miles into the race. This year I had two goals. The first
being finish the race. The second and largely do to my lack of training
don't DFL. It good to set your goals high!

I arrive at Agwin race morning and bump into the usual suspects, Matt L,
Isaias, MO, Franck, Jeff and TWWer I haven't seen in a while like John. I
do some warming up, but all to so it's time to line up. I'm near the front
of my start group, I figure I might as well be near the front of the pack at
least for a few seconds.

Soon we're off and racing. I'm actually feeling pretty good, it's the best
I felt at the start of a race this year. I make it past the point were my
race ended last year, that's something. I recognize parts of the course
from the HMC, but other parts are new. The singletrack is sweet! I love my
new Fox F80X, it handles so much better then the SID it replaced. I'm
enjoying myself...on one section of singletrack I pass a person who beat me
at a CCCX race this year...maybe I'm making progress.

I reach the Death March climb, nasty, but not as bad as I thought it could
be. Thank god it's not hot. At this point my energy level drops and I'm
losing some ground. I'm close to cramping. I take an ecap and finish off
my Hammergel-water mixture. By the last 1/3 of the climb my energy level is
back up and I get my second wind. I make up the ground on a few people who
past me earlier. Soon it back to the airport and the sprint home. I'm
still making up some ground, great! I ride thru the mudhole, I'm almost
there. Duh! chainsuck, bad chainsuck...f*ck!...f*cking really bad
chainsuck! I'm off the bike trying to straighten things out. After at
least 2 minutes of effort I can actually pedal my bike again. I'm on the
track, I hear TWW cheering me on, I finish strong. My time 2:35:18. I
already have my goal for the next NVDC, 2:15 or better.

Matt