Omaha CX Weekend: Upgrade Worthy

Photo Courtesy of Lucas Marshall

Well my first cross weekend is in the books. What fun it is. Lessons learned:

• CX bikes are fast
• I need to work alot on my dismounts (surprise surprise as I went to 1 cx practice prior to this)
• My remounts were surprising getting easier
• Longer strides when running will help
• CX tires don't hold an edge quite as well as a mtnbike tire does
• Just like a crit or mountain bike race - don't be late to stage and line up on the front

So here's the short report on both days. On saturday I did a 30 minute warmup. Got to the line early and got my position front row center right between Todd Eyberg and Jeremy Eisenhauer. 35 racers in the cat 4 field. Looked around marked a couple of guys from Central Plains Cycling and Sioux City Velo I new from crits could be quick.

  

Whistle blew...clip in...full power...go. I decided to drill it from the start and see what would happen. JE and I gapped the entire field from the start. Through the first half lap sand pit, Eyberg was closing down the gap and not far behind were the CPC and SCV duo. By my guess they had 10-15 second gap to close. Through lap 1, the gap still existied. I told JE lets work together and stay away, he pulled through but started to fade. Sensing he was blown I jumped around and went hard again to reopent the gap. 3nd time through the maze my rear wheel slipped going the tight off-camber shikane. Lost 2 positions there. Remounted started going hard and got jittery and over-shot the turns through the trees. Back on track but gave up 5 spots. 3 laps down and now 3 laps to go with a 30 second gap to close to 1st. Spent the rest of the race chasing it down. Managed 2nd place. 

Photo Courtesy of Dan Farnam

Day 2. Course in reverse with some tweaks. 36 riders in the cat 4 field again (awesome turnouts). Late to S/F area and everyone else was staged (refer to lessons learned above). Eisenhauer let me in to row 2 next to him. Thanks Jeremy. After a 45 minute warm up legs were primed. Whistle blown...clip in...go hard. Jumped some wheels up to 4th place. Dude from bike pedalers went down in the first turn and I got caught behind him. Now sitting 11th-12th I had some work to do. Rest of race was spent chasing hard. Worked my way back to 3rd place and was only 10 seconds out of 1st by the end of the race. Legs definitely felt fast for two days.    

   

Photo Courtesy of Lucas Marshall

Anyways, I'm not stoked to race some more CX races. I'll be running the rest of the season as a Cat 3. Following this weekends results I upgraded. So this upcoming weekend Mike Miles and I are headed to KC for Cross Out Cancer.

Cheers,

J