This race for me was important to get a good indication of where my form was at the beginning of the season. The field was small but strong and I made sure I entered the singletrack climb first so that I could lead into the downhill which I was able to open up a gap each lap on. On the 3^rd lap I suffered a mechanical while out in front which lost me around 4 minutes which was disappointing but not the end of the world as this was not a UCI race or anything too important. In the end I finished as the 2^nd Under 23 rider, just behind Logan Horn with Dirk Peters winning the Elite Men’s race.