Grant kicked the week off in some of the most difficult, muddy conditions in Wednesday's singlespeed race. Although he rarely raced singlespeed in the regular season, Grant netted 22nd place among a field of bloodthirsty one-geared specialists.
Next up was Saturday's masters events, which saw Grant, Jess, Josh and Ken all toe the line in their respective age groups.
The morning's cold, frozen track was both cruel and kind to the Evol crew. On one hand, Grant suffered a flat and then a rolled tire on his pit bike, leaving him out of contention.
But Jess had one of her best races yet, fighting through a deep, strong 30-34 field to finish 5th, her first-ever Nationals podium.
Later that afternoon, Josh and Ken lined up for the Men's 30-34 race, the "Baby Masters." Here, they were up against a field that included top-ranked elite riders—certainly nothing to trifle with.Again, the Evol team rolled with the punches. Josh was taken out of contention early by a flat tire, but Ken stayed in the mix, at times knocking on the door for a top-three finish.
After 45 minutes of racing on a quickly drying track that had equal measures of rough hardpack and slippery mud, it came down to a sprint for 5th, and Ken proved to be quickest.
With thousands of hours of training, months of racing and numerous podiums behind them, we lined up for our final—and biggest—race of the season. Elite nationals.
Faced with one of the biggest fields ever seen for a women's UCI event, Jess, Kate and Kristin fought through traffic, gusty winds and crashes to net respectable finishes in the top half of the field.
Grant, Spencer, Josh and Ken were faced with similar challenges and also took them head-on. We didn't mix it up at the front, but we were there, soaking in the crowd, suffering and putting an exclamation point on the end of a great cyclocross season.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment