Team BEER

compared to this year’s Cx nats in the midwest. this dude has a ton of photos on flickr.

Jeffery and I entered the men’s C cyclocross race.  It was a chilly morning out in Granite Bay.  Good wintery wind was blowing.  I bundled up and rode the course a few times, trying to figure out the turns and get the blood flowing.   I focused on a tricky section of a sandy soft left followed by a hard gravel right leading up to the barriers.  On my 3rd time through, I totally ate it at <10mph, but it didn’t do more than ruffle the feathers.   The rest of the course was a Maile special: technical turns and long with a couple BMX mounds.

Jeffe and I showed up a tad late to the start line cause I wanted to make another run on a portion of the course, (my bad) but we were only in the second row.  At the whistle, I gunned it up to the top 5 or 6 and hung with them for half a lap until I was about to pop, but I had made the cut into the top half of the field.  That was my gameplan going in, so I was happy for the good start.

I took it down a notch and on the second lap started riding with a dude from Chico Corsa.  I told him, “hey, let’s work together” as I went up for a pull.  I dug in a bit and went around a turn only to find he was gone.

At the end of lap 2, I went through the twisty part of the course a bit more carefully and caught a glimpse of Jeffery behind me.  I sat up to let him get on my wheel and by the time we got back to the line, I was out of the saddle to get up on his wheel.  He was riding really solid and I had to claw my way back on.  The BEER fan zone was going crazy for us as we rode by.  The bell was already ringing for last lap!

I wanted to get Jeffery max points for the series, so we had to stay on the gas and see if we could soak up any other riders.  I recovered a bit and when we got to some pavement I knew I could take a good pull (roadie skillz, yo).  I jumped out front for the back half of the lap until we got back to the twisty area.  Jeffery could take that section much faster and when I had to hit the brakes briefly, he went right around me.  We stayed upright until the line and got 7th and 8th.  No podiums, but I consider it a big success.