Sedona’s mother-and-son duo of Andrea and River Valdez were on their mountain bikes Oct. 17, partaking in the Cactus Cup event in Fountain Hills. Strong performances were registered by both.
The Cactus Cup is a series of mountain bike races that takes place over three days. Both Andrea and River participated in the 40K XC race, with Andrea racing in the 40- to 49-year-old women’s division and River competing in the junior men’s [13- to 15-year-old] race. Despite being younger and smaller than most of his competitors and racing a longer race than what he’s used to, River finished fifth out of 25 racers in his race. Andrea, meanwhile, finished first out of the 11 riders in hers.
Andrea — who was also racing a longer distance than normal — took the lead in her race after the first mile and eventually began passing some of the riders from races that had started before hers. As the race neared its end, she accidentally dropped her water bottle and was left with a dilemma — leave it as most racers do or go back to pick it up? Noting the challenge of racing in near 100-degree heat, she chose to pick it up. The decision worked out well.
“I was a little nervous about this decision because I was in the lead and didn’t want to lose my position,” Andrea said. “Luckily, I was able to hold them off to the finish line and win the overall women’s 40K. The best part was coming through the finish line and hearing my little buddy, River, cheering me on saying, ‘Go Mom.’”
“Other than the water bottle incident, it went as well as it could considering the heat,” Andrea added. “The heat always sucks your energy.”
The heat was a concern of Andrea’s going in. She was not only concerned for herself and River, but all of the other riders. Fortunately, she said that she didn’t hear of any heat-related incidents.
River’s race went a little differently than his mom’s. He fell second-to-last in the early portion of the race, leading him to play catch up for a portion of it. Slowly but surely, though, he began to gain steam and progressively passed most of his competitors.
For 13 miles of the race, he was all alone, without any competitors in sight, until he finally saw someone to chase until the end of the race. Andrea noted that it can be hard to maintain a fast pace in that setting. River, though, kept his speed up.
“I know it is a race,” he said. “And if I let off the gas, racers behind could catch up.”
River added that while he would have liked to finish on the podium [top 3], there wasn’t much more that he could have done.
“I train a lot already so I can’t do much more on that end,” River said. “I am one of the youngest and smallest kids in the junior men category, so I think I will have a better chance next year to get on the podium.”
Both Andrea and River are training for the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona series, which is set to begin in January — although COVID-19 could alter that schedule.
Both are looking forward to that race and potentially getting a chance to finish what was started a year ago.
“We both have participated in this series for several years and have a great time racing and seeing our bike racing friends at these events,” Andrea said. “River and I did three of the five races last year and were both leading in the overall standings to win the championship jerseys for each of our categories, but the last two races were canceled due to the pandemic.”
