The second half the cross season is a different beast. Leaves change, temps (are supposed) to drop, 2 months of riding circles gutting each other leads to consistent duals and battles with friends. Skills are tuned and fitness holds if you’re able to stay healthy, hungry and focused. It’s the heart and darkness of the season, snow falls and dreams drift to the winter that is near, it is my favorite time of year.
With a forced break following a nasty bit of crashing and breaking carbon in mid-October, I rebounded following a few weeks off from the local UT circuit with 6 weeks of focused racing remaining on my schedule rolling into November. The Ogden TRP Cup coerced a few national caliber riders to the Wasatch for a 3-day weekend of USAC and ProCX points, and I made a solid return to racing, finishing 9th and then 3rd on a quieter day 3. Best of all was racing on a course hand designed with my own two hands and put on so damn well by our local rock star promoter Joe Johnson of Ptown CX, grass roots quality racing at its finest.
While most of the Mtn-Wester’s headed to CXLA, I kept the travel powder dry and had a few great weekends consistently battling against a returning to form Alex Grant following his massively long healing foot injury. At the Weber County Fairgrounds, I led the entire race, only to get caught and passed by Alex with 2 to go after he aced the one technical feature, a 3 foot horse jump gap that had eaten many a carbon wheel that day. But revenge was all the sweeter the following weekend on a last minute trip south to “Dixie land” as the locals call it (St. George, UT for those not in the know, the South is relative in Utah) with the Utah State Championship title on the line.
The course was on a working farm, complete with suicidal ducks, corn maze, haunted house, a pond, two massively gnarly methane producing rows of dairy cows that they made us ride straight through, not recommended but gave a certain Belgian flair I guess, and some flat field grass that was turned into a slightly gratuitous 90 degree turn fest. From the gun, Alex, Jeff Bender, young gun Evan Clouse and I created separation and we spent the first 40 minutes pacing ourselves through the course, with a few punches, attacks and tests throughout. Tip of the hat to Evan for proficiently jumping the barriers each lap causing the rest of us to chase, though I think we all knew that at some point he could, and eventually would crash himself out – kids ya know?! Out of nowhere Jeff’s front axle undid itself somehow and he was gapped, down to three. By then I was feeling good, in my mind and body almost stronger and stronger as the laps ticked down 2 to 1.
For a moment, I thought to myself, I could win. Today could be the day. I quickly snapped myself out of the day dream and got down to business. Cross allows for no such dreams and moments of distraction. Onto the gravel and through the start finish, tightly together staying out of the wind.
Through the methane gauntlet and around the bend, moving into 2nd behind Alex. As we entered a small bowl Evan spun out, lost traction and dabbed the ground taking himself out of contention. Down to us 2, stay focused, move up and attack, this is it. I immediately gassed it and passed on an inside corner before a short forced run up. From here out it a short gravel drag and then into turnfest 5000, making it very hard to pass. I put down all the watts I could and accelerated out of every corner shutting the door each time as I could feel Alex try to jump ahead. After the last corner there was a long arcing drag around the pond and then a final turn through gravel before the finish. Pedal was to the medal and with a final sprint I checked left then right and threw one arm up and a yell of victory into the air! My first cyclocross win. To top it all off, my mom was waiting for me on the line with a hug and kiss, my eyes drifted skyward and thought of my dad and how proud he would be to have seen this day.
The following week, the calendar flipped to December and with it the snow flew hard for a few days, making the finale of the Utah Cyclocross series a real frozen mudder of an event. 20 minutes into our race the temps had warmed to just above freezing and combined with a full day of traffic the frozen snow turned to mud and made for a super challenging, super fun slip slide-a-thon. Near perfection bike driving.
Unfortunately, the combination of snow, sand, grass and mud neutered our drivetrains. I quickly went from 11 gears to 2 within the first 2 laps and with no pit bike was stuck in a high cadence spin off the front. After 30 minutes of bouncing on my saddle trying to stay away from the chasers, i went from 2 gears to none as the gunk build up rendered my chain to cassette connection useless and I click-click-clicked my way to the S/F and stopped asking for anyone with a brush or spray gun. 
The chasing 3 passed me as I jumped back on the back after getting a gracious quick power wash of the cassette. 20 seconds down, work to do but now I could at least shift, 3 laps to go. I made up time through the next lap getting within reach of 3rd placed Kevin Day. But through all the passing of riders and jumping in and out of the snow line, the drivetrain was once again back down to 1 gear. I dug deep and pushed on getting oh so close to catching Kevin through the last few turns but ran out of real estate. But man so fun to ride in dynamic, challenging and completely different conditions than we have had nearly this entire season. 
And that brings us to this past weekend, with 2 days of racing down in Garland, TX at Resolution Cross Cup. A most excellent event and fantastic course that challenged both the legs and skills with a great mix of grass and pump track flow section of wooded rooty goodness. With the season nearly behind me and a few powder days already tempting me off the bike, I put all my chips on the table and gave it my best effort, coming away with two top 15 finishes, my highest ever UCI level placing. Mostly though I’m proud of the way I raced this weekend, really all season: hard, smart, clean, leveling up and building on the successes and failures each time the whistle blew. It feels so good to put a weekend all together after such a long, fun season of racing, and years of doing this bike racing thing. All the intervals, skills, rides short and long, before, between and after work, and so many moments thinking about the bike, the battle of one’s mind and body, the race within the race. It’s a love deep down inside. I love this sport so much because its provided me with a canvas and experience to push myself not just physically but mentally in ways no other experience has, to explore pain, perfection and my limit. To define and achieve what is my best, if only for a moment. It’s such a beautiful and fleeting thing. And a search that I know will only continue because we are always changing, growing, learning and challenging what we know is our best – how awesome is that?
Now let's get fat and go skiing!
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