Sugarloaf BX

Mother Nature cooperated today and it was a beautiful day for racing. Granted it was really cold but it's winter in Maine. We got to Sugarloaf, Whitney checked in and got busy with race day prep. They started with course inspection, a few practice runs, riders meeting, then started racing. I decided because it was so cold that I'd hang in the competition center for the first race and would hike up to see her in the second. It was a good plan especially since she only got one run per race and the only good place to watch was by the finish corral. You could see up the course some and there were other parents there so it was good.

Whitney said both races were good. She really enjoyed herself the second race. The first one included some shady riding, nothing illegal or anything she could protest, just stuff that left her and the other UMF rider really irritated. She said the second race was great, lots of fun. There were four open class riders today so good competition. She had ridden against the three others at some point as had one of the other riders, the other two had ridden against two of the other riders so they were all pretty familiar with each other and had all beaten each other at some point so they were pretty evenly matched. Whitney ended with a fourth and a second, a good day at the races.

There were two other UMF riders and a freeskier there today. One was racing with Whitney (she came in third and fourth), one was in jams men and the skier was also in jams men. I liked what I saw of the new coach, I think he'll do well and Whitney likes him.

I'm not sure what's up next. She had planned to take the next few weekends off especially with the possibility of a job but the UMF team is talking about going to the BX races at Holiday Valley in the Western NY series the last weekend of January. The other possibility of upcoming races is a BX race at Stratton, VT and a GS race at Mount Sunapee, NH the first weekend of February. The next weekend she'll be coming home for the BX at Massanutten. She can't wait to race there again and I can't wait to watch her. It's usually good viewing at Massanutten since you can see almost the whole course.