Another great weekend of 'cross racing is in the books, and another week of improvement has been accomplished. My finishing results were mixed, but my sensations out on the course both days was better than last week. Now I'm in for a week of resting before my team's race on Sunday, the Hillbilly Hustle V.4. The winner of the Men's 1/2 receives a custom trophy by Warren Holzman of Iron Studios. It's super sweet! I'm going to do what I can to make that trophy mine, no doubt! But that a week away, now for the race reports!
Saturday @ Whirly Bird Cross: After the mental and physical beating the previous weekend, I was more than ready to do some lower key local races and have more fun in the process. I clearly wasn't ready for 'cross yet, and most certainly not ready for 2 UCI races. But that being said, I felt better on course and was lucky enough to have the officials scrap call-ups and so I got a front-row start. At the gun, my front-row start turned into a front-group selection, which panned out just fine for the first 2 laps. On lap 3, after a minor mix-up in the front, I was working to close down a small gap that had formed when the crazy wind blew the course tape inward as I rode the good line on the inside of a bend, catching my bars and taking me down. Immediately, 4 riders crashed into me and we all set about checking ourselves, our bikes, and getting back to the pursuit of the 3 riders who got away clean. I was the last of the group to get back going unfortunately, so I tried to close the gaps down as quickly as possible. After catching the 2 riders that had passed me while stopped, I saw I was reeling in the tail-end of the riders I was previously with. As I caught one, we started working together to catch the rest. This proved rather difficult though, and while in hot pursuit I started feeling the effects of my crash and with 1.5 laps to go I lost contact as we caught 2 riders. My ankle was throbbing after the race, so I grabbed some arnica and made sure to ice it well once I was home. End result on the day: 8th out of 19 starters.
Sunday @ Ed Sanders Memorial Cross: This race marked my first MABRA race back, which is a series I loved to race when I was on the East Coast previously. Being the first MABRA cross race of the season, I was also hoping for a free-for-all at the line, but no such luck. The call-up process had me towards the back, and my clumsy self decided to slip a pedal at the start, leaving me pretty close to DFL into the first corners. Oh well, guess that makes the race more fun for me! The course on the day was a tiny bit sloppy, with some moderately difficult sections that required good firm-mud handling skills. Luckily, I came prepared on the day, having switched my normal Schwalbe Racing Ralph tread for the more aggressive, thinner, and classic CX Pro tread. These babies are great in mud, and they did their job as I rode by guys running their bikes through the half-dry peanut butter. I kept this up until 2 laps to go where I had 3 more riders well within my grasp. I stayed right on them, with the furthest only about 12 seconds up on me and recovered slightly so i could take one last long dig into the final lap to pass and drop all 3. BUT, just as I recovered I heard the insane laughter of the flat-tire gnomes from behind me and sure enough, PFFFFFFFFF. No more air in my rear tire as I rolled through the finish with exactly 1 lap to go. Now most elite level riders finishing in the money most weekends would have a spare bike, or at least a spare wheelset at the pit. Well, I'm not most Elite riders! I gingerly rode to the pit half of a lap in and silently prayed for someone to still be there. Luckily, when I arrived, there was a gentleman no too far away whom ran over and let me borrow their wheel to finish on. THANKS DUDE!!!! I rolled in as the last full-race finisher on the day, and set about cleaning up and thinking about what to eat on the way home. Stoked I was feeling decent both days, and can't wait to be back on all-cylinders in the coming weeks and fighting for VICTORY. End result on the day: 14th of 25 starters
So 2 weeks in, 8 to go? Ah, doesn't matter, I'm having a blast racing 'cross again and SO SHOULD U! So get a bike set up, any bike, and head on out to the races!
No comments:
Post a Comment