I made a long weekend out of the Finely hills race by spending a couple of days at my mom's house in Naches. I always love heading over to the east side to do the Finely hills race and thought I'd get a little home cooking to get my legs ready in the mean time. I'd have to rank this race as the best in Washington. The course is a kick in the pants, but it will make you suffer if you're lacking fitness.

After a little tour of Kenniwick I finally arrived at the race course. You would think I could find my way to the course I've been to 4 times without any troubles, but I always make a wrong turn in town.

After a little warmup we were all ready to go. I was nice to be on a local starting line with more than ten guys. I'm so sick of promoters making a category for everyone and their dead aunt. This in one of the big reasons why I love the Finely Hills race; I'll keep coming back as long as there's a race. The promoters run a great event and keep it simple. I think there should be a BBQ next year!!!

Well, someone said go and we were off. I never get the greatest starts and had to work through some people. As we headed up the first hill it became easier to make a move up to the front since there were so many different lines up the climb. Dale was going hard and has a pretty good backside to draft off, so I jumped on his wheel with no intention to increase the pace. Half way through the fist lap Dale got a little bored with Loren's granny gear (he gets it into the big ring in a few races) climbing and pulled hard on the back side climb. I was still content to follow. I was actually hoping the pace would allow for Jason J. and Chris Stone to catch up. We had just returned from a road trip to the SeaOtter and Napa together and I knew we would have fun working some team tactics. I guess I'd better start road racing if I want to play with a team, because Dale was having none of that.

As we started the second lap, Dale asked me if I was going to drop him as we started the first climb. I didn't intent to, but I thought I'd make it tough on him and kept a good pace up the climb. I got a pretty good gap and kept the throttle pegged for awhile because Dale never gives up. He always keeps me honest!!

I wish I had some great exciting stories to tell about the rest of the race, but it went pretty smoothly. However, I did run over a rattlesnake on the last lap!! It even rattled!!!!

Thanks for putting on such a great race!!! I'm only doing the most fun races this year and Finely Hills is one of them. I look forward to the 7th annual with a BBQ??? next year!

You can check out the results and overall times at the 6th Annual Finley Hills Challenge Results page.

Return to the Finley Hills Challenge Race Reports Page