West Layfayette CX Challenge

This race was a learning experience. You could call it other things, but that's what I'm sticking with. I was pretty psyched for it, since it was the first race for the bike and first A-Race for myself. It was hard. The course was a fun one. The first fourth of it was twisty and technical and the other 75% was an open bumpy grassy field. I was able to ride the entire course before the start, but I still didn't have too great of a feel for it. I knew I had to be in the top 5 within the first lap if I was going to be in the mix of it by the end. I also know that the starts are always fast and furious. Indeed, the start was fast but I was not furious enough. Going into the first corner I was 5th, but I was being a wuss through the technical section, and lost my position. I could have gone so much faster through that section. I have no idea what happened. By the second half of the first lap, I had lost contact with the field. Yet I tried to keep my losses at a minimum and just keep it consistent, hoping I could pick off a few guys by the end. No such luck. I thought at one point I was going to catch Andy Messner, then he went off like a bullet again. It turns out he had a flat.......I couldn't even catch him when he had a flat! Another performance of the day goes out to Remo Thomson. He's 15 years old, and he raced to an 8th place in the "B"s and jumped in the "A"s right afterwards. He suffered like a dog, but rode extremely strong. He had the exact opposite performance as I did. I didn't bonk, but I just couldn't corner like I usually would. It was a bummer, but I ended up with 9th place(out of 11 starters, with one of them flatting). The only good thing I have to say is that the bike handled like a dream...... now I just have to learn how to handle it like a dream. Oh yeah, I held off being lapped until the last 300 meters(and only by the top 3 racers). I was not 2 laps behind like it was stated on truesport. Not that it matters or anything but I'd just wanted to save myself a little dignity.

On another note, congratulations to Mario Camacho of MOB Squad and Adrienne Murphy of Mesa Cycles on winning the Argyle Jersey Level of the Slipstream Sports Youth Cycling Award. Next year I'll be racing for Mesa Cycles, based out of St Louis MO. I'll write up a report on the team later. I'm really tired.


Here are the pics:

2nd or 3rd corner

2nd half of the 1st lap

Can you say, "SLOW!!!!!!!!"?

A reversed cambered U-turn.

Through a loose dirt/barrier section.

After the barriers.

No excuses.

CX + surprise

*Yellow legwarmers and rain jacket= Junior race
*Back legwarmers= B-Race

It was cold, rainy and muddy.....

but I still know how to have fun.

The U-turn with the tree. Lap one.

Reaching for the tree. We had a really good one(pic) of me in mid swing but "someone" deleted it. Bummer

Thats the big downhill in the first lap of the jrs

A few laps later

What fun.

Not me, but you get the picure.

Oh yeah.....

It's here.

Brookside CX/ IN state championships

It was cold AND rainy AND freezing AND muddy AND cold. I don't really know how to describe the course completely, but there was a big downhill that was entirely torn up by the end of the jr race, a few muddy switchbacks, two barriers sections. One section was a U-turn with a tree in the apex, that you could grab and slingshot yourself around. I know its hard to imagine since I didn't describe it too well. But I have pictures to make up for my partial (complete) retardation.



I'm gonna try and keep these reports short, because all I remember is the mud AND the cold AND the wet. The junior race wasn't too messy at the beginning; but with 3 other races going on at the same time it got pretty slippery and muddy by the end. I escaped on the first lap and bagged the junior state championships. The 30 mins before my next race, I spent cursing the cold and trying to warm up in the truck. My mom's ear's MUST have been burning! I was forced out of the car within minutes of the B-men that contributed to my horrible starting position(3rd row back). At the start I couldn't get into my pedals until the race was 50 meters up the road. Right from the gun I was playing catch up. Fun...... At the beginning of the first lap I was dead last at 30something place, I think I moved up 10 places on the first lap. That still left 20 something more places to move up in the next 6 laps, but I burned a lot of energy trying to pass those ten guys. I think I was picking up about 4 guys a lap, but its really hard to remember because it was really cold AND wet AND muddy. With 4 laps to go Dad yelled at me to unclip my inside foot on the downhill to act as a counter balance. It looked silly but it really helped out with the "not falling" on your face in the foot deep mud. As the laps ticked down my machine's braking capabilities disappeared like an open jar of Nutella. On the downhill section of the last lap, I had to bail off the course in order to avert a head on collision with a solid looking tree, riping 3 sections of tape off the course in the mean time. I would rather the tape take the beating instead of my face through a tree. After that short little detour, I jumped right back on the bull(literally)just in time to get off the bull for the run up. Half a kilometer later I cruised in for what I thought was 20th something place.

Pretty disappointing, considering nationals are only 30 days away and counting. But I had only ridden 4 times since my 2 week break, so I'm using this as my excuse. I was pretty surprised when I saw the results and had actually finished 6th in the race, and 4th in the state( for all of you non racing-educated bumpkins, that means that 2 people from a state other than IN finished in front of me, since this was the state championships)

From now on I'm going to try and finish every one of my posts with a random tip or a acknowledgement to a person(or object) I think deserves a shout-out/recognition for any reason that I deem acceptable.


Tip Of the Post(TOP) Buyer beware: I just went through the third replacement of carbon FSA cranks. After two rides(including the race) the pedal inserts broke loose again! The pedals almost ripped away from the crank. Love their stems and bars. Hate their cranks!!!

Pictures later............

Dang.

Oh well, at least they don't have any pressure to be undefeated. And who cares?!?!?! It's not even the playoffs . And when it does come down to the playoffs we'll have a fire in our bellies. Whatever..........

GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I've been on a break for 2 weeks?