Event: Iron Hill

Name: Cary Hunter

City: Waterford

State/Province: Va

Country: USA

Age: 43

Place: 3rd

Category: Sport

CLASS +/or Age group: 40-44

Team: Potomac Velo

XC Race Bike: DEAN

Tires: HUTCHINSONS "gold, baby"

Conditions: dry

Email: caryhunter@yahoo.com

How was your fitness level going into this race?

It's been a little slow coming this year due to me not knowing what I'm doing(just passed my 2 year anniversary of racing two weeks ago) but feeling better and getting stronger in the last couple weeks coming into peak for Mt Snow, NCS 8/17. I trained 9.5 hours this week right up to this race as it was used as a "c" race.

Were you happy with your position going into the singletrack?

Sure, I work through the group to get into the top 5. I wanted to have the leaders in site so I could see who I needed to "search for" or chase. I lost all that position quickly, though at the first technical climb when my chain dropped and the whole field passed me before I could get back the bike.

Were you strong from start to finish?

Pretty much, I think I was tiring at the end, which I could have avoided, maybe, with another fueling 20 mins before.

When did you put the hammer down?

I never really did and you really couldn't on this course because of the passing ops. Instead, I attacked hard whenever I had an opening. I stopped pushing so hard near the end and Don Pagano passed me with a mile to go! Dang, I chased him and dropped my chain before the last steep climb before getting out of the woods. If I had know the leaders was 10 seconds up and Don was just behind, I would have put the hammer down then and opened up "a major can...". Oh well.

Did you have any unusual problems?

Just a tire that got a slow leak in the first lap and I prayed that it would hold to the finish.

Were you happy with the way the race was run?

I really was. FSV does a good job with this and these big races get tuff. We should probably all get on some common "best of breed" scoring system to use with all these races that's foolproof so things work smoother, quicker without any problems.

Did you have any interesting experiences during your race (exchanges with competitors/spectators)?

I almost crashed on the first and second time through "the dip". That was scary.

Anything you would like to add?

I want to thank the SuperSeries organizers, FSV, my sponsor A-1 Cycles in Herndon, Va, and YOU for reading this babble from a 3rd place sport 40+ racer which no one really would care about.