Pikes Peak Super Cross Report

Picture curtosy of Ultra Rob http://photos.ultrarob.com/Cyclocross/Pikes-Peak-Velo-Cyclocross-13/13839246_eVJZJ

New Office, New Co-workers

So, I upgraded to Cat 2 at the end of last cross season. I haven't really decided what the season will bring in terms of racing open or 35+. I would like to do Boulder Cup and the New Belgium weekend, so the upgrade was needed. As are some early season open races. 60 min and 45 min are very different.

I ordered a new Specialized Crux Pro this week, but it will take some time to get here, so I bought Allen Krughoff's Redline to get me through the start of the season. It's a great bike and learned how to go fast from its previous owner.

With the car loaded with people, Joe, Allen, myself and Amy Dombroski, bikes and wheels (13 of them on the way home), we headed out to the Springs for my first race of the year. That's a good group, we enjoyed the ride down despite Joe's bitching that he was breaking his Cross travelling rules and rolled into Bear Creek Park with 65 min for Amy to prep. Amy rolled to a 2nd in her race as we prepared.

Let me just say that races like this are why we do early season races. I was warming up and went down on one of the numerous loose, gravel corners. I flatted and tore up my arm. I jogged to the car and changed the tube and finished warming up.

The course was dry and loose. I do like this course in theory ( I won a Single Speed cross race here last season) but for the race yesterday it was not its best. Brad from KCCX described it as a mix of talcum powder and kitty litter. It was loose, very rough and disintegrating. I think the guys and gals at Pikes Peak Velo did a great job to keep it where it was. It could have been way worse.

The race started with the usual bumps, bobbles and crashes by everyone and when we shook out I was content just behind Joe as we settled into a good tempo. People started cracking as I was feeling great when the trouble started. 4 chain drops, 1 crash and 2 flats, the second of which I rode through the finish line. I think I passed the same guy on 5 separate occasions as I recovered from mishap after mishap. Let's just say tubies would have been nice, but rider error was high on the list of faults. I managed to roll to 10th out of 15 in my first open race. I did get lapped by the top 2, including Allen who recovered from early problems to get 2nd. Joe was great in 5th.

As I recovered with a Mango Mix 1 I decided that I was happy with my first open effort. there is a long way to go, but there was a lot that can improve.