Beezley Burn Race Report - Cody Cupp and Jake Harrop

Cody Cupp - The Beezley Burn was a grueling but awesome race. The course twisted through the dusty and sage brush covered hills on the outskirts of Ephrata. We started in a local park, pedaling down a dirt road that ran along a canal, occasionally dropping off the road onto fun single track. Once we reached the end of the road we made our way up, down, and all over the hills. Spectators could actually see most of the 8 mile course since there was no trees and the course constantly switch-backed through the small gullies. When we reached the top of the climb we had a fun, fast and rocky descent that would often swerve back up the hill to keep you pedaling back down to the park.

Racing expert, I did three of the 8 mile laps. For most of the first lap I was able to stay with the front group but by the beginning of the second I started to drop back, along with a few other people. I was passed by 2 or 3 more people on the second lap but was able to pretty well hold my ground. On the third lap I managed to catch and pass back one of the men in front of me and held off another trying to chase me down towards the end.

There were no other juniors racing expert so I just race the 19-29 age group. I ended up winning 19-29, because it turned out there was no one else in that age group either. In the overall standings, I landed in 10^th place for expert so I was pretty happy with that. I feel like I could have beaten a few of the people who were in front of me and I definitely need to keep working on my leg strength, endurance, and overall bike skills to get back to where I was last year. I still feel like I did pretty good for an early season race though and had a blast on my new King Kahuna!

Jake Harrop - The Beezly Burn was my first mountain bike race of the year. I was feeling a tired, so changed my plan to race Sport to Beginner. The course was a pretty technical 8-mile course with loose rocks, definitely challenging but fun. I place 2nd in the 15-18 and felt pretty good about my performance, with the exception of some leg cramping near the end. Next time I'll make sure to eat a better breakfast in preparation for my race.