Boulder's Cyclocross Weekend

Halloween weekend has been the biggest weekend in Cross racing here in Boulder for a number of years now. Last year we were at the Rez and the mall. Years prior it was Harlow Platt park and this year we were hitting the Boulder Rez on Saturday for the Colorado Cross Classic (UCI 2) and Sunday the new Valmont Bike Park (UCI 1).

The weekend started with the number pickup party at Rocky Mounts on Friday night. Rocky Mounts and its principal, Bobby Noyes, have been a huge part of Cross in Boulder from the beginning and this weekend would be no exception. Breeze picked me up from Rally after RACE's workout about 7 and we rolled over to the party. After about 10 min there, Breeze had her number and was ready to go. I, however, had not moved in the line for my numbers. It was taking a while, but to be honest, it was pretty nice to hang out with the guys and talk about the races. I tend to get a little riled up, but hanging with guys like Josh Whitney and Zac Edwards reminded me why I race UCI cross, the guys and the atmosphere. This weekend in Boulder was going to be the best of both. Great competition and a great racing atmosphere.

Saturday started as always with a 2 hour coaching session at Rally. 6-8 and then I rushed over to the Rez to see the tail end of Breeze's race. She was not having a fun morning, but despite the chain drops and lack of warmup she took 3rd. As she raced, the ground thawed and the conditions changed...a lot. I rolled home for a bit and hung out. Racing in town is really nice. I pinned up at home and had a nice breakfast and a relaxing morning. Breeze and I headed back over around 1.

Once we got back over there, I rode a couple laps to get a run of the course. Boups had really done a number out there. The bumps from a month ago were gone and they came up with a sweet, hard, long course that had a little of everything. Some of the everything was mud and the bikes were in need of some cleaning after only two laps.

We lined up at 4 and I was determined to take advantage of my good call up number of 33. The whistle went and I got a nice run on the first left hand turn and then we were immediately on the 180 left. It was muddy and slick and as I drifted wide the guy outside me chopped me pretty good and his foot was in my front spokes. After a couple terrifying seconds we untangled and in two more turns, hit the barriers. I still felt like I was in a good spot and as we careened along the gravel to start the mud section, I was a positive guy. That changed at the bottom of the first downhill. It was really muddy down there and thick Peanut Butter mud. The front wheel slipped on me and as I pulled hard to straighten it out, the handlebars turned, the wheel did not. So now my bars were at about a 30 degree angle from the wheel. There was no really good place to stop without losing all the momentum so I waited to fix it. It made for some very interesting corners, but I got to the sand run up and straightened them out.

After a lap or two we were settled in. I had Josh Whitney and Ross Holbrook just in front of me. Josh was steady Eddy and was consistently pulling away on the techy, muddy descents. Ross on the other hand was putting in some brutal surges that were just crushing me, but he was dragging us up to Josh only to be gapped a bit on the mud. We were a solid group and we were bringing back Shawn and Will and others, but it was obvious we were running out of time. I thought we were going to be pulled with 2 to go and fought hard to get Josh, but he had the same thought and as we rolled through with two to go and they didn't pull us, we were almost together. He had caught Shawn and we had dropped Ross. I must admit that as we went across the start finish and I heard Dave Towle comment that if we got here we would finish the race, I relaxed. I saw that I was the last guy not to get pulled there and I was not sure I could get to Shawn and Josh especially now that they were battling hard. I was dreaming of a last lap beer feed and making sure I stayed ahead of Trebon. Much to my dismay, we hit 1 to go and got pulled on the 80% rule. It sucked. We had plenty of a gap on the leaders and they pulled us 100 yards from the start finish. There is just no reason not to have us race the last lap. Oh well. I voiced my dismay to the USAC official and I think she got a little pissed.

I was gassed. I spun out with Allen (who was 10th) and packed up the car as Breeze helped break the course down. I must give huge props to Boups and josh Whitney, who not only spent the day setting up and running the show, but then raced the UCI race. Studs.

Breeze and I got home after getting dinner at about 6:45 and got in the ice bath. We were after all doing it all again Sunday and needed some recovery. I was pretty content. I had a nice showing of 36th in front of the home crowd and almost survived to the end. This excitement took a hit the next day when I discovered I was wrong in the results. They had me at 40th, 2 laps down. Not only were there 4 guys ahead of me, they had me pulled on the wrong lap. I filed protest on Sunday, but despite photos and chip timing they denied it and did not change the results. Guess I should have kept my mouth shut at the finish. No big deal right? No money there or anything, BUT it does change things for Masters nationals points and pride. Oh well, just have to bring it at Boulder Cup.