Two days of cross racing

What a weekend! Beautiful weather, leaves changing colors and two cross races to go to. Unfortunately my motivation wasn't as excited about racing as it should have been. I pretty much took the whole week off of riding after the Sheboygan race last week and that does something really weird to the systems somehow. Everything hurts more and the focus just isn't there, at least that was my experience on Saturday at cross race #1.

Riding alone day #2
Photo courtesy of fattires-n-beer.com

Day #1

The setting couldn't have been better. Yellowstone lake state park in southwest Wisconsin. It all looked so good! So we pulled in and parked, registered, changed, anWhat a weekend! Beautiful weather, leaves changing colors and two cross races to go to. Unfortunately my motivation wasn't as excited about racing as it should have been. I pretty much took the whole week off of riding after the Sheboygan race last week and that does something really weird to the systems somehow. Everything hurts more and the focus just isn't there, at least that was my experience on Saturday at cross race #1.d started looking for the course. Hmmmm, where's the course?? Oh, it's down the road, through the woods and up on the horse trails over in the field, about 2 miles away. Huh??? My motivation took a turn for the worse.
We made our way to the course only to find ourselves at the bottom of the course AND at the bottom of a 35 second descent that made the downhill at Mount Snow, VT seem like a groomed tobagon run. I'm talking full on I need a full suspension bike with 6" of travel to go down this thing descent!! Detached retinas, carpal tunnel wrists, and broken frames were the thoughts going through my head as I prerode the course.
Basically the course was one big oval with one downhll, two uphills ( with dismounts) and lots and lots of HUGE potholes.
The best part was when we lined up and Matt Kelly bluntly states to all in the general area " Dude, theres more officials than riders here". Sure enough, a quick count put the officials 5, racers 7. Hmmm, fuzzy math Matt. Still funny though.
Well, long story short I was rather unmotivated by lack of attendance, lack of a CX course and lack of riding during the week. We started hard, too hard, and by midrace point I was blown. Matter attacked me by sitting 40ft off the back and then blasting by me at hurricane Katrina category 5 wind speed all but blowing me off the trail. I didn't even respond. Sweet, now I can go slow and my legs will feel alot better I thought. I tripped over the barriers for the next 30 minutes before stumbling in for 4th on the day.

I thought it would be sweet to carry
my new Trek XO1 across the line in it's first victory

Day #2
Well, as bad as day #1 was, day #2 went that much better. A pretty sweet course, lots of spectators, lots of racers and another 65 degree day! I was pumped. Maybe it was the 2.5 cups of Torke fresh ground coffee made cowboy style ( no filter, just water and grounds) or maybe it was the 5 hours of football/basebal couch time that I took Saturday evening but whatever it was, I was jonesin' big time.

The first lap saw us sort it out as usualy and four of us pulled away with CX rookie and SS world champ Jesse Lalond in tow. Matt Kelly took charge on lap two but must have been feeling the sideaffects of a late night at a Bruce Springsteen concert last night and the instant he slowed, I attacked. I kept it pegged over the runup gapping Kelly and Matter and then layed the hammer down on the road climb. That was it, game over.
40 minutes off the front and the victory was mine. Matter and Kelly duked it out for second and third, Kelly taking second after Matter antagonized him to "do it for the Boss" during the final sprint. Hey Matter, maybe YOU were "Born To Run"!!!

In the end it was all pretty fun. Thanks to the people that made the racing possible this weekend just so I could get my weekend fix.