Race Report: 2025 Stafford Lake Rattler XC (MTB) - Men’s Cat 1/Expert
Race: Stafford Lake Rattler XC (MTB) Men’s Cat 1/Expert Age 35-49
Date: November 9, 2025
AVRT racers: Michael Matthews
Top Result: Men’s Cat 1/Expert Age 35-49 1st/9 (Men’s Cat 1/Expert Overall 6th/32).
Course: The Stafford Lake Rattler XC was a traditional format MTB XC race with a ~4-mile loop. Per lap elevation gain was 475 ft. The course is a mix of singletrack, fire road and double track. It utilizes the Bike Park and the hills to the south of the park that contain trails closed to public riding. The expert field did four full laps, but the first lap was slightly abbreviated, for a total of “five” laps. The features of a full lap included a hot, steep climb, flowy descent, steady switch-back climb, techy/loose treed descent, and a couple more short ups and downs through the disc golf course. Trail conditions were mixed. Dry in most areas, but largely super grippy (from day+ old rain). The finishing straight was long, flat and grassy in the field by the lake. The drag in the grass was rough!! Wind and weather were largely a non-factor.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/16410670919
Nutrition: Normal breakfast and ~100g of carbs in a bottle for pre/during race nutrition.
Event Recap: As a part of Wave 2”b” the C1/Expert field was released one minute behind the PRO, and Junior Elites. I went into the first climb in second. On the climb we caught the lagging end of the PRO group and one Expert rider got out ahead of me around one of the juniors. Unfortunately he got a good gap of about a minute. There was never a real threat from behind. Once I got around the junior rider, I set into a strong pace and was comfortable trusting my endurance to close the gap eventually. By the middle of lap three on the larger climb I caught the lead Expert rider. I kept the pressure on up the entire climb and opened a small gap. He closed it quickly on the next descent. On the false-flat technical section before the fire road and grassy finish loop, I decided to jump, committing to an early move. I created another gap and pushed it on the flats to extend it. That gap would hold all the way to the end for the win! I held a sustainable pace and was conservative in the tech for the remaining 2 laps. I am proud of this one, being my first C1/Expert race and being fairly de-trained during a fall break. Also, according to Strava (at time of writing), I claimed the 6th fastest lap on the day!
