Race Report: Welch Village, MN
5/22/99
Written By: Justin Thompson, TREK/VW East Coast Factory Team

After two days the long and tiring drive to Minnesota (over 20 hours in an old VW Vanagon) was finally over. I was very glad I had a day (Friday) to preride the course, check my bike, stretch my legs and eat some food. The course that was super muddy the day before had dried out considerably for the race but was still very greasy and slow. The Experts went off at 7am on Saturday morning. The day stared very early, we woke up around 4:30 for the race. I ate my prerace meal which consists of a bagel, some rice crispy treats and a powerbar and then turned on MTV. The Junior Expert race started out fast and furious up the first climb. I started out conservatively but was soon into a good rhythm and passing many on the climb. By the top of the first climb I was in the top 15 and headed into the greasy singletrack feeling good. From there on I continually caught people and refused to get comfortable but instead kept chasing down racers one at a time. I ended up in 7th place in the Junior Expert race and was very pleased with my first top ten finish at nationals. My TREK 8900 worked flawlessly and my Hayes disc brakes were a huge advantage in the soupy trails of the Midwest