I placed fifth in the Pan Ams, just outside of Farellones, Chile. My race started alright, and progressively worsened after each of the four laps around the course. I was climbing faster than both Alexandra (2nd) and the Colombian Junior world champ (3rd), but I couldn’t get it together for the technical descents. Then I crashed, and crashed again; eventually I split open my front shift housing and spraining my right thumb. I probably lost well over ten minutes on the last lap as I couldn’t hold my grip with my right hand (or shift), and my left shifter didn’t work. I could manually shift into my little ring for the steep climbs–or just ‘run.’ Oh well. I think I picked up some UCI points for the fifth place finish. That should help if I’m going to try to do the Canadian World Cups or race Worlds this year.

Twice I got to descend this road from Farellones, Chile to the race course. Over 4,000 feet and 40 curvas.

The sign says it all.

One of the easier sections of the course.

The start/finish area a day before the race.

Joey and Marc waiting for the racers to hurry up and finish riding.