November 26, 2011

Jingle Cross Day 2




Got my first podium of the year finally. I wasn't totally expecting it looking out the window at the steady rain at 9am. It's pretty tough conditions to show up without much to stay out of the wet with, I had a total yardsale going on after the race with everything I owned laying on the ground wet or muddy. The race went really well for me. The course was pretty much the same as yesterday but very muddy and slippery. I had the FMB Super Mud tires on both bikes at about 20psi and it was like riding on velcro. I couldn't believe the traction I had. I even used my new Rolf Prima VCX aluminum tubulars and it was like having disc brakes, I could stop instantly and it was very consistent, I was really confident with the setup and could ride fast because of it.

The front group fell apart and came together several times over the first few laps until Todd finally got away from his brother after what I heard was a bad exchange where Troy got a teammates bike instead of his own. I chased and chased 20 seconds down and finally made contact with him with 2 to go. I got a small gap in the last lap and held him off and surprisingly almost came up on jones near the end. Jones has way more power in a straight line than me but I know I saw him go down at least 3 times with his tires just going out from under him and I didn't crash once unless you consider the slip n slide downhill off mt crumpit but that was just comical anyway so doesn't really count. I did hear Todd was riding it which is pretty impressisve if he was. I went the safe route and mostly slid/tripod my bike the whole way down.

Hopefully I have good legs tomorrow. Cyclocrossworld guys sat out today - can't believe they had a semi drive the whole way here with full canopys and tents at a mud race and didn't even show up to use it. I had the family station wagon in the rain and worked on my bikes for 2 hours tonight to make them work again and was able to make it - just saying.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well put. Nice callout on the rodies.

Dana said...

Awesome pictures!

Anonymous said...

Great race Tristan! KEEP IT GOING!!

Anonymous said...

Just sayin...when the going gets tough, the tough get going.