Grass Stains

Photo courtesy of Jimmy Archer


That's the best way to sum up Boulder Cup today. I was pretty excited about getting a chance to race with the UCI boys today at Boulder Cup. It was hardly a perfect lead up to race day. We flew to Montana on Thursday and flew back last night. To boot we went out last night until close to 2 with Breeze's sister.

Allen and I rolled up to Flatirons Mall around 1:00 in order to set up for the race and warmup. The course was really gnarly. Off camber turns, 180's, run ups and it was really slick. I mean really slick. They had cut the grass on the course and left the clipping on there and it made for an ice rink in places. It was not a file tread course. I learned this in warmup as I washed out a corner and then found myself sliding down the hill for close to 40 feet.

The topic of the day was start position. It always matters in cross, but in a UCI field of close to 100 that starts in a 10 meter wide barriered section, call ups were key. I had a start number of 36, pretty darn good. I was talking to Chuck Coyle at the start and we were laughing at his 70th something start position, the quote from him was "if I pass you something is wrong." Omen.

The start was fast, furious and tense. I got out well, but was a little timid getting to the front. I laid back a bit and was around the wrong guys. We got into the first tight corners on the grass and it was bikes and bodies everywhere. I got caught up with a pedal in my wheel and we barrelled through the tape and bottled up the field. By the back straight I was in a solid spot and holding tight. Pete and Dubba went by and I was able to keep them in sight. We hit the run up and life was good man, top 30 and holding steady. then all hell broke loose. The switch back section, downhill on the grass changed everything. The guy in front of me washed out the corner and I hit the deck. 10's of guys went by. 100 meters later the same thing. One of the guys in front of me went down and I was sliding on the grass again. This time I was left trying to slam my hood back in place. As I did Chuck rolled by yelling "something's wrong." Awesome. One a side note, one of the reasons I love cross is moments like that. I hit the deck 2 more times in the next 2 laps and found myself in 2nd to last 13 minutes into the race. Not good.

I did start to find my rhythm at that point and started to roll some guys back. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't smooth, but I got back ahead of some guys and was feeling like i had some legs. Just when things were rolling we fell outside of the 80% rule and were pulled.

Oh well, it was a a fun first race at that level. The crowd was awesome, loud , boisterous and really motivating. I heard my name a lot, from some swimmers, friends, my athletes and my fiancee. I feel a bit like I let them down a bit, cause I can ride better than that. I finished a little upset and a little embarrassed, but also motivated to do a better job next time.

What did I learn, cause you always gotta learn. Get out aggressive and ride aggressive. Sometimes though, life throws things at you that you cannot avoid, keep your head up and ride hard.