Learnin' By Doing

Phot courtesy of Jenny Gerson


My second race of the year was the first Boulder Cross Series race out at Xilinx. As usual, Brian put on a great day. Belgian waffles, BCS for bike work and a challenging course.

As has been the theme for Colorado Cross this season it was dry. I half expected to cough up a mud ball today as I recovered. The course started up the pavement on the back side of Xilinx and as usual the fun started immediately off the line. The guy right in front of me slipped off his pedal and nearly bit it, then got going again, the chain caught and he did bite it. We hopped the curb at the top and rolled into a talcum powder turn to the first obstacle of the day, a 6 inch log. Many of us ran it on the first lap, but it came back to bite us later as it almost claimed me and did claim Zack Gould as evidenced here, www.303cycling.com.

Over the bridge and then up the first barrier section and then down to the pavement on a rutted, rough, dusty off-camber turn. Then on to the pavement and hammer across the parking lot and the backside of Xilinx. Pure power section that you had to hammer because there was a break coming down the hill.

The backside of the course was fun and challenging, from the tight turns, to the ditches that seemed to be between steps for your dismount. then came what i think was the defining piece of the course...the sand. The lines were to the way right on the out and the back, but it took many of us a couple laps to figure it out.

I had a good day, but I need to prep better, from course prep to warm up. Great day for my training partner Allen Krughoff and the rest of the Boulder Cycle Sport squad. Allen, Brandon and Webber, 1-2-3.