Sonya Looney, Author at Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine

Thanks to Vince for this great shot! Well, it's been about a week and a half since TSE ended and I've put blogging low on the list of priorities simply because when you miss a week or work, there's a ton of catch up! Here is a recap of my feelings for the week that I wrote for Dirt Rag Magazine last week. Stage 4 was my toughest physical day. The trail was super fun at Raystown. I detonated early on and was feeling the deleterious effects from cracking on the road stage the day before! It was 98 and humid that day. The trail was like a roller coaster with a bunch of woops. It was awesome and I didn't care that I felt slow and tired on my bike. Well, I did care, but it helped to be on an awesome trail. I'd highly recommend checking out that trail if you are ever in the area! Stage 4a was a wheelie contest that I somehow won. It was awesome!! I have never been great at riding wheelies, but 10' was all I needed to win the jersey! That would be the super-d jersey and my friend's son, Tanner. He is only 11 years old and rode about half the stages. Look out for this guy in the future of mountain biking! Stage 5 was fun. It was super d stage race! We did 4 different super-Ds. I had fun on all the techy trails and it was surprisingly refreshing to do some all out 15 minute efforts and some balls-out descending! Stage 6 was the toughest day mentally for me. It was the only day I had good legs, but luck was not on my side. My leg suffered a blow from a hidden tree branch sticking out early on in the race. It's doing much better, but still swollen and little bit painful. I kept shoving ice into my sock during the race to try to keep the swelling down. I also rode 5 miles off course losing about 30 min and I broke my derailleur. That was the toughest day to swallow. I was thankful to have good legs, but it was a bummer to lose so much time on a day where I could have made some headway on my GC placing. Ouch. I am so lucky that it's not broken, but it's a pretty painful tendon issue. Stage 7 was the last day and I was really glad that there was an agreement in the women's field to have a parade race meaning we all just ride together. Unfortunately, my leg was hurting so bad that I couldn't keep up and I was having to pedal with one leg because I couldn't push down with my right, injured leg. After my left leg got tired, I was having to walk hills and was gritting my teeth and groaning on every bump. Crossing the final finish line of the race wasn't as joyful as it should have been because of the pain, but I felt excited after a few hours! Here is a video from Colt at Cycling Dirt upon finishing. Click image for video I had a fantastic time at the race and highly recommend it! I hope I can come back next year. It was a great tour of the trails around the area with some really amazing people. Thanks to all! And now, moving on...!

Sonya Looney

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Sonya Looney

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