And all of a sudden its October! The last four weeks have been a blur as the 'cross season got off to a fantastic start in Utah, with local races starting just before Labor Day. After just missing the podium at CrossVegas last year, I wanted to get a jump on the season this year and make that event my first target for a strong result. Following a handful of good results racing locally in the P-town Cyclocross series, chasing the likes of Jonathan Page and Jamie Driscoll around the grass parks along the Wasatch front, the pump was primed for Vegas.
While the main event wasn't until after dark, the USAC 123 race kicked off the day's events at 4pm under part cloudy skies and graciously moderate temps. As advertised, Brooke Watts and team made some serious changes to the course this year, doubling down on technical features, including an uphill sandpit that only a few of the World Cup racers could even ride. After the chaos on the start line weaving through the 90+ rider field, I found the front and traded leads for the first few laps with fellow Utahn and friend Kevin Day. Along the way, I got taken out twice by other riders loosing their grip on the grassy off-cambers, and once by my own volition, and had to burn matches to catch back on to the lead group. With two to go, three or four of us starting throwing and landing some serious punches along the course which quickly decimated the group of 10 that we were riding with and it was every man for himself on the last lap. Kevin got a gap at some point, honestly it was a painful grass sucking leg searing blur of a race, and I was able to attack, bridge and gap across a few guys to put myself into 3rd, but ran out of 'road' in the shortened ~40 minute race and finished 15 seconds behind for third. Happy with a podium and iconic CrossVegas cowbell to take home but not quite fully satisfied. Luckily, Terra from Clif Bar and friends overfilled my cup later in the evening with food and beer as we cheered on the World Cup race under the lights.
After a rare, dream-like mudder of a race at the Weber County Fairgrounds in Ogden, UT, I've now made the trip back to Colorado to hit up three days of racing at Cross of the North, take in a week of work in Boulder, and double up with some UCI racing at Valmont Bike Park for the US Open of CX.
The Fort Collins crew from the First City Cycling team have put some serious blood, sweat and tears into these events for a few years now, absorbing the big hole in the local calendar following the demise of the USGP/ New Belgium Cup UCI race weekend. A mega challenging course design, a Friday night under the lights race, good vibes, live music, flowing beer, and ProCX calendar points on Saturday and big payouts for the Elite's made the event a no brainer to attend. We had a nearly the full team attend at least one race which made for a fun weekend of camaraderie and revelry!
Friday night saw a slightly shortened course and race time (~45 minutes) which only made for a more intense and focused effort under the glow of lights and a quarter moon. With no BRAC points, I was relegated to the back of the start line this, and each day, which made it nearly impossible to ever get to the front of the race and really battle for a podium. Side note, Chris Baddick has been able to use some kind of British devil magic to navigate through an entire field of guys within one lap. Clearly all that World Cup mountain biking he's been doing has translated amazingly well. I have no such magic and was in awe, chapeau sir. Nonetheless, my legs came around surprisingly well after being in the car for six hours and I finished eighth.
Saturday drew a sizable field and crowd under perfect Colorado fall weather, if you like it high and dry. Unfortunately perfect Colorado weather makes not for perfect 'cross course conditions, classically Colorado field grass as it may be, and things quickly got hot, dry, bumpy and dusty, to the point where running the Clement PDX (a mud tire) was the best option for surfing through the powdery talcum dirt that was in some places nearly a foot deep. I lacked a noticeable kick during the race but diesel-engined my way through most of the field for 10th.
Sunday's course saw a few modifications from the day before, but once again featured a stellar mix of full on power drag sections intermingled with twisty flow recover zones, a point-and-shoot it triple off camber and two or three viciously steep, incredibly loose, run ups. These are seriously only tolerable due to their positioning next to the beer garden and announcer paddock, such that the heckles, dollar bills and beer hand ups made each ascent worth the back crunching pain. Following another exciting start which saw multiple crashes and slide outs on the first lap, I made my way through the field, jumping group to group and eventually finished sixth, but more importantly by being consistent, ended up taking second in the three-day points overall omnium. While the cash is always nice, the award, a branded railroad tie from the nearby Union Pacific RR was super cool. I'm now writing this in a train-wreck-like state following three days of hard racing - thanks Cross of the North!
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