Racing (Road, MTB, Gravel, Cross)

The Kenda Cup is a five-race mountain bike series in Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, and each race has different categories such as XC (cross country), XC Marathon, Enduro and Downhill. The Kenda Cup 3 was on March 1 and three PAA members, Evy Gin, Mike "Mac" Macatula and Dru McMackin, participated in the XC race in their respective categories. The bike park trails are 100% man made for mountain biking in the hills north of the Vail Lake KOA property. Cross country and Enduro trails with a variety of green, blue, and black ratings have been developed and are accessible anytime with a day use fee providing secure parking and facilities. 

Our ‘Soldats du cyclisme’ contemplated the possibility of a wet race day and last minute prep for the contingency. By race start, weather conditions were near perfect although breezy, introducing the possibility of drafting strategy. At the midpoint for the series, another important opportunity to accumulate points for the overall. 

Evy raced solo this round in her category taking the win. If there is a theme by round three of the series for her, it's a story of increasing confidence. Pre-race anxiety has been replaced with anticipation, seeing familiar faces at the event, and setting PR’s on key course segments.

Mike finished 5th in his category, but reported fading by the third lap. Providing some context - he was caught up in a competitor’s early lap one crash. Mike had recovered and went on to PR nearly every key segment in that first lap to catch back on to the mid pack, but the cost of that effort was too high and found himself finishing with no matches left to attack the finish.

Dru took the win in his category, executing a late race pass in the final to hold on. Many times in MTB racing - you are racing the course, yourself, or the clock - once in a while you actually race the competition head-to-head throughout an entire race. This was the case today, executing a strategy to not chase every move, to draft others into headwinds and not making unnecessary efforts to pass when not needed until the end, paid off - winning by 2 seconds!